In conducting healthy industrial relations, knowledge and a good grasp of employment laws, a knack for persuasion, a good-sized portion of perseverance, an open mind, an inquisitive eye, the ability to compromise and being prepared to think outside the box are prerequisites to achieve positive results. Currently, there are a myriad of industrial relations and employment issues whichcaught my attention.
I will only delve briefly on six.
Malta ranked in the 41st position in 2012/2013 in The Global Competitiveness Report. Since then, Malta has slipped seven places and currently is in the 48th position. The Global Competitiveness Index gives pointers about the overall performance of Malta’s economy. Public transport is one of the drivers. Last Friday, thousands of productive man-hours were lost because of heavy traffic congestion, attributed to showers at the beginning of the rainy season. Workers arrived very late to their place of work. The public transport cock up must be disentangled. As yet, good millions of euros from the national coffers are being thrown after bad.
Last week during a Business Breakfast, Mr Arthur Muscat, President of the Malta Employers’ Association, referred to an issue which every now and then, leads to industrial strife - union recognition for the purpose of collective bargaining. This issue has always been a hot potato. Muscat explained that currently the Employment Relations Board, a tripartite body, is engaged in discussions about union recognition. The established practice is that union recognition is granted to the union enjoying membership of 50%+1 of the total workforce, save some exceptions. A union may be granted recognition for the purpose of collective bargaining on the grounds of a particular grade, class, industrial, clerical and/or specialized category of workers in a particular place of work.
What irked the MEA is not the proposal that seven workers may be granted union recognition for collective bargaining purposes in a particular place of work. Rather, it was the proposal that seven workers in the same category or class from within a larger group of workers at a unionised place of work will be allowed to make a claim for union recognition with the purpose of negotiating a collective agreement for their particular category. In practical terms, a place of work employing fifty workers in three different categories of workers may have to deal with threedifferent unions. The benefitsto be gained from this proposal for the trade union movement andthe employershave to be well substantiated and defined to avoid unnecessary industrial strife.
This brings me to another issue. Without going into the merits of the case or thoseemanating from a recent court judgement,clarifications ought to be made. In a recent judgement, the courts cleared a postman of criminal intent for refusing to deliver 66 letters. I empathise and can certainly understand the frustration of the postman. However, in conducting healthy industrial relations at the place of work,the judgement did not in any way promote industrial relations’best practice. From what has been reported in the press, there was disagreement between the MaltaPost management and the Union. However, the postman decided of his own accord to unilaterally resort to industrial action. In this regard, further elucidations should be made to ensure that this judgement does not breed the belief that workers can resort to industrial action without their employer being informed of such action bythe union representing the workers. Only registered trade unions have the legitimate right to organise and resort to industrial action. It would be wrong if workers are led to believe that they have such a right. Unions, employers and the economy will be in a serious fix if this is encouraged.
Caritas Malta published a commendable long list of proposals intended to pull out persons who are in work but yet are at risk of poverty. The list is encompassing and verychallenging. One cannot argue against a set of objective targets aimed at improving the standard-of-living of the working poor and the vulnerable in our society. However, I do not subscribe to the Caritas’ proposal for the setting up a new advisory council, similar to but separate from the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development, focusing entirely on social issues. Caritas Malta should make a strong case with Government to become a member of the MCESD. The MCESD has on a par the social affairs agendato that of economic development. As a consultative body, the MCESD has the duty to make recommendations to Government to ensure that the generated wealth is both sustainable and fairly disturbed.
The last issue I will deal is partly apositive one. The data provided by the Employment and Training Corporation for August disclosed that the number of persons registering for work stood at 4,914. One of the lowest figures recorded in recent years. Notwithstanding this achievement, in the labour market there were no significant wage and salary increases. In normal circumstances, when there is a shortage of labour available on the labour market, wages and salaries tend to increase automatically. The demand and supplytheory is a basic concept in economics. The less available, the higher the price.This has not happened in this case. Strangely enough, more are treading closer to the poverty trap.
Why tread on thin ice?
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