There can be little argument that precarious work in all its insidious forms must be wiped out, and the government went some ay this week toward leading by example in terms of better checks and balances on companies applying for public tenders. More, however, needs to be done in terms of cracking down on precarious and illegal work practices in other areas of the economy.

On the one hand, today’s new awareness on precarious work - loosely defined as non-standard employment that is poorly paid, insecure and unprotected – partly thanks to the country’s unions, has meant that such practices are abating to a certain extent.   But on the other hand, such employment practices are still rampant and, in addition to the exploitation they entail, earnings being paid under the table also mean a great deal of lost revenue for the government coffers.

In a new set of rules and regulations applicable to companies bidding for public contracts, a major source of revenue for several sectors of the private sector, the government this week stipulated a number of new conditions that companies will have to meet if they are to be considered for government contracts.

First and foremost is the measure that such companies bidding for public contracts will need to specify the minimum hourly workers’ costs in their tenders, and a breakdown of employee costs in tenders where the tender requires a global sum covering the services to be provided.

Moreover, the public authority contracting the work will also keep timesheets of the work carried out by the winning company’s employees.

In a nutshell, the others include: the provision of a guarantee that parts of the contract will not be farmed out to third parties or to self employed people, meaning that there will be no passing if the proverbial buck when infringements are detected and that all employees of the bidding company are registered with the Employment and Training Corporation and all such employees have written contracts, meaning that taxes and national insurance are being paid; that all employees are  given detailed payslips that also show income tax and social security contributions; that such employees’ wages are paid directly into their bank accounts and that the bank statements of wages paid are to be made available to the Director of Industrial & Employment Relations when requested.

Moreover, any contravention of the Health and Safety Authority Act, where violations in the construction industry are common practice, could constitute sufficient grounds for the termination of any contract.

These steps are all positive and at a glance go over and above the pledges by the previous government to blacklist from public contracts companies that were found to exploit workers.  As far as we know, although we stand to be corrected, not a single company had been blacklisted.

Just yesterday, the Malta Employers Association published its position paper on the issue, breaking precarious work down into the categories of illegal employment practices, atypical employment and unethical employment. The MEA argued against introducing more legislation against illegal work, contending that existing legislation ensured both decent work for employees and a level playing field for employers.  The key, it said, was in enforcement of the law.

For example, the MEA pointed to a list of precarious work practices drawn up by the country’s leading union, the GWU, and observed that each of the practices underscored was already covered by current legislation.

The MEA’s recommendations included the interesting suggestion that the government sets a minimum hourly rate to ensure that companies winning tenders are in a position to provide at least the legal minimum working conditions to their employees.

While this is all well and good as far as public contracts are concerned, after all the government should be leading by example in this and in all fields, it must also step up its fight against the precarious work and in fact illegal work practices in other segments.  The fact that the government is to become more discerning vis-à-vis the companies that it does business with, there are still thousands of workers in other sectors that are being exploited quite drastically on a daily basis.  More enforcement of the current rules and regulations that are aimed at preventing precarious and illegal work practices is highly warranted.