Debate in Europe right now is veering towards regulatory intervention for a European minimum wage. While the idea of pushing for standardisation of minimum pay all across the continent may gather support from different quarters, its calculation may raise objections making the core idea less attractive than what appears at face value.

While they are due to take position on minimum wage and worker rights in Brussels, in Valletta our Government Ministers oversee a whole set of infringements and doubtful practices to the prejudice of worker rights, actively signed up to by none other than the ‘socialist’ Government itself.

The phenomenon is largely hidden from the public eye, but people speak out in confidence. Over the past year, I have in fact been told of quite a few cases of people with work contracts with government companies or other public services which blatantly breach a series of worker protection rules and principles. While Government data remains scant and hard to chase, the few published figures indicate that at present we have thousands of work and pseudo-service contracts paid through public money through the intermediary of a private contractor for work in the public domain.

These contracts relate to a diversity of tasks, from road works to customer care tasks from Government companies to agencies to ministries. They have a common characteristic of being jobs which are ‘invisible’ in the list of public employment, which incidentally also rose from 40,000 to 51,000 under Labour’s watch. But these other thousands do not appear there. These jobs do not have the secure job tenure of public service and are not legally under government books. Instead, a private contractor is used. They get a chunky tender from Government and then they employ people to do public works, frequently at minimum wage or close thereto. Government can say unemployment is at a historical low, while the contractor gets hundreds of thousands in ‘administration fees’. Everybody wins, right? Well, almost, apart for the workers involved.

Another common feature for these thousands of jobs is that they invariably promote a situation of unequal pay for equal work. Yes, that sounds funny right? The principle normally speaks of ‘Equal Pay for Equal Work’ but the practice of the current ‘socialist’ government promotes a system whereby the same work place hosts regular public service employees sharing a desk with the contractual agent hired through the private intermediary company. They share a desk or an identical common task, but the salary at the end of the month may vary up to 1,000 euros between them. That’s equal pay equal work Labour style.

Up till a few weeks ago these contracted workers were being asked to work Sundays and public holidays without any additional compensation. This is evidently in contravention to the Work Regulation Orders, our local employment rules dictating that work on Sundays and public holidays has to be compensated extra, For years, these rules were neglected, the Government complacent to the illegality going on in its own companies and agencies, while the private contractor gained financially from the infringement as it kept its fat slice of the pie intact. It is only in this year’s budget that the Labour government finally announces a rule for these contracted workers to be paid extra for Sunday work. No mention of any right to take back dues for Sundays worked over the years.

In a work place where you are paid less than colleagues for the same work and where the ‘public’ employer fails to give you your due for Sunday work, I let you imagine what measures in place you will find to ensure your on the job training and personal development. Jargon like upskilling and life-long learning is evidently left to the media flashes. None of those find their way into these precarious contracts. Same goes for Labour’s keen idea of a living wage, floated by Muscat before he rose to power, then drowned deep in Government practices promoting precarious work and minimum wage.

With the above context at home, the Labour Government and its four MEPs are now to represent Malta’s stance in the ongoing debate on minimum wage in Europe. The Council of Ministers has already had a first discussion on the matter. One would be curious to see the handling by Malta’s own representative around that table. Did he argue for stronger collective bargaining rules like the French did while churning out thousands of public contracts with no provision for a basic collective agreement at home?

And how about the position of the Maltese Labour MEPs in the European Parliament? Next week the item is up for debate in Strasbourg. Will they have the cheek to argue for the private sector in Malta to rise up to the challenge of a higher minimum wage while their buddy Robert Abela promotes precarious work at 800 euro per month in Government agencies and bodies in Malta and especially in Gozo?

 Peter Agius, PN spokesperson and MEP candidate

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