It is unacceptable that in 2007, at least 20 per cent of school leavers do not have a school leaving certificate – these school leavers are condemned to become unskilled workers, said Malta Employers Association (MEA) deputy president Lawrence Mizzi yesterday.
Mr Mizzi was addressing a business breakfast organised by the Malta Employers Association on The European Commission’s green paper: “Modernising Labour Law to meet the challenges of the 21st century”.
General Workers’ Union general secretary Tony Zarb, Union Haddiema Maghqudin general secretary Gejtu Vella and various employers were present.
Malta has a great lack of skilled workers – at least one in five children finish secondary school without the basic skills such as Maltese, Maths or English, Mr Mizzi said.
He added that, if approved, implementing the green paper would be a costly exercise and wondered whether taxpayers and employers were ready to incur these costs.
Mr Mizzi also said many redundant workers were reluctant to undergo retraining and came up with all sorts of excuses to evade it – including making use of sickness certificates.
MEA director general Joe Farrugia gave an overview of the green paper and said that one of the major concerns employers had was that they could be burdened with extra costs due to a possible change in legislation.
“It is hard to keep up with changes – increased regulation imposes added costs to employers,” said Mr Farrugia.
He pointed out that labour laws were not enough to achieve labour-related objectives – such as freedom of movement or a safer workplace.
Mr Farrugia asked whether introducing flexible measures in the legislation was enough to attract women to the workforce again.
“There could be a number of other factors – including cultural and social – that could be keeping women at home,” he said.
He added that the system of social benefits was a disincentive to work and that a number of incentives needed to be introduced to encourage people to go back to work.
The green paper should take into consideration the individual needs of member states, said Mr Farrugia.
Employment and Training Corporation (ETC) CEO Sue Vella said it was the role of the ETC to help make jobs more attractive and to help people find work.
She said people who remained on the employment register for a number of months were made to take a full-time job or else they would be struck off the list.
She pointed out that the ETC offered various grants and schemes for those who wanted to continue learning.
Industrial relations lawyer Andrew Borg Cardona said there were too many regulations and that it was time to “de-regulate”.
“It is time to take a closer look at the law and question it from an employer’s point of view,” said Dr Borg Cardona. “Are all these rules and regulations needed?”
Dr Borg Cardona was sceptical about the success of the “flexicurity” model – how labour law at EU and national level could help the job market become more flexible while improving security for workers – proposed in the paper.
“You cannot have two concepts in the same word – in the working world these do not meet,” he said.
“People who enforce regulations need to look at what the industry and enterprise need. However, employees also need to be protected and can do so through ongoing training,” said Dr Borg Cardona.
Industrial and Employment Relations director Noel Vella thought that the green paper was useful because it gave Malta a chance to take stock of the situation and that it was important to start at the local level and work upwards.
“Malta has to think of her interests. We have certain characteristics – such as collective agreements – that are ideal to our work economy and it is important that we do not lose these,” said Dr Vella.