General Workers’ Union secretary general Tony Zarb said yesterday that European and international trade unions should face up to the problem of exploitation of workers and do something about it.

Mr Zarb was delivering a closing speech at a seminar organised by the Reggie Miller Foundation on Labour conditions in a globalised world. The seminar was first addressed by Swedish fair trade campaigner Nina Zita, who is in Malta for 10 months, working voluntarily with the Fair Trade Cooperative (KKG).

Ms Zita has produced a documentary about Swedish consumers and exploited garment workers in Cambodia. Mr Zarb said that exploitation of workers was a global problem. “To solve it, we need global trade unions to campaign against it. The General Workers’ Union is against it and we all have a part to play,” he said.

Mr Zarb said that all trade unions should start a campaign in favour of fair trade, but it was necessary for the larger cross-border trade unions to take up the initiative for this to have any effect.

“We need to look no further than our own shores to see that workers are being exploited. I wonder how many irregular immigrants are being paid a pittance illegally. Probably not more than the garment workers in Cambodia that Ms Zita saw,” he said.

Mr Zarb said the largest body of consumers in the world was made up of workers. “So we, as trade unions, should help open their eyes. Show them that there are certain products which should be boycotted and other fair trade products that should be given preference,” he said.

“Exploitation is huge, so our work rate needs to match that,” he concluded.

Asked by this newspaper as to how people could ensure that they were not having wool pulled over their eyes when attempting to purchase fair trade products, Nathalie Grima from KKG said it was simple. “All you have to do is look out for the genuine fair trade logo. These are issued by the Fair Trade Organisation which ensures that the money indeed does end up in the producers’ pockets.

“As yet, there is not one for handicrafts, but work is going on in that sphere too,” she explained.