Businesses are still struggling to find employees, GRTU Malta Chamber of SMEs CEO Abigail Mamo told The Malta Independent, however the union is hopeful that certain upcoming changes might help improve the situation.

Last November, this newsroom reported on the dire situation in which businesses found themselves in due to the lack of potential employees, with some even having to resort to ‘off the books’ employment of third-country nationals. This was mainly due to the low level of local unemployment, and issues with bringing in third country nationals to take up jobs. Back in 2016, applications to bring over third country employees were taking months to process, and were causing problems including situations where, this newsroom had been told, businesses couldn’t expand even though they wanted to, and that employees would just be trained by a business and move elsewhere when done, making it hard for the original employer to fill the post.

Currently, the issue of off the books employment has not been completely solved, and mainly revolves around cleaners, sources in the business community explained, adding that it is practically hard in Malta to find cleaners who want to work on the books. “The choice is either finding one through a contractor or… it is very difficult. Even those cleaners working off the books still charge quite an amount.”

Speaking with The Malta Independent, Abigail Mamo explained that government is working on reducing the times required to issue work permits for third-country nationals down to 15 days, adding however, that if there are complications in the application process then it would take longer. She said that this has not yet been implemented, but explained that government said it soon will be. The GRTU will be setting up a unit to help employers file their applications correctly to avoid any issues which can prolong the process.

Asked whether this proposed reduction in the time taken to issue work permits would completely solve the situation, Mamo said that it would depend on how it would be implemented. “Currently an application goes to identity Malta and is then sent to Jobsplus, the NCFHE for qualifications checks, the police etc. Now these would all go under Identity Malta. They are doing these changes as many were complaining and they want it to be quicker and easier as they know that the time taken is causing problems.”

“There were concerns that this 15-day change would result in a less-quality oriented checking system when it comes to health and safety but we as GRTU are not seeing this, as the government knows the checks they would need to do in the 15 days.”

Currently, a few other changes are in the pipeline, she said, including beefing up the expatriate unit to further speed-up the issuing of permits and the handling of applications.

In addition there were issues regarding hiring low-skill workers, including cleaners and dishwashers, where if a business wanted to employ a third-country national in such a job the potential employee would need to provide qualifications or have evidence of experience in such a job.  “When it comes to such low-skilled jobs it did not make sense to require such experience for such jobs.” She explained that this has now been removed, and replaced with a simple declaration where the employer would say they are still ready to employ and train the person even without prior experience in such a job.