A proposal being made by the General Workers Union for the coming government Budget is for the drafting of legislation for gig and platform workers, for them to start being considered as employees.

“Currently they are not considered to be employees as they do not have an employer. Because of this, they are not even given the basic guarantees by law, as many of them receive a commission or are being hired through a contractor, and a number falling under the latter have many benefits cut. We believe these workers should be considered as employees for them to be given legal protection," Josef Bugeja, secretary general of the GWU said.

He sat down with The Malta Independent on Sunday for an interview. Asked whether these workers are being exploited, he said “Definitely. I always said it.”

“It is a new form of slavery. Many Maltese complain as they see these workers running all over the place. They are doing this as many of them are paid on commission. And they don't have enough protection. When there is an accident everyone feels sorry for them, but are we doing enough to protect them?”

Asked if there was any movement in terms of regulating this issue, he said that the GWU, together with the Department of Industrial Relations and the Malta Employers' Association, spoke up. “The department introduced new regulations, even in terms of how their time is divided since they don't have fixed hours, but in order to move forward, these workers must start to be considered as employees. Even the EU is drafting legislation on platform workers."

The Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) is expected to rise substantially, going up to €8 or possibly €10. The Malta Chamber of Commerce suggested that workers who had a salary raise this year should not receive the full COLA and that they should only get the difference between the COLA increase to be announced by government and the raise they would have already received this year.

Bugeja said that the GWU “absolutely doesn’t agree” with the Chamber’s proposal.

“The COLA agreement has been in place for many years and was never removed. We held discussions in the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development (MCESD) in the past, but it never led to anything (...) We were agreeing on certain aspects but it did not move forward.”

He said, however, that on the eve of the Budget, “you don't try and change the regulations like this”.

“You also need to keep in mind that this compensation is for what workers have already lost in terms of purchasing power due to inflation.”

When the COLA agreement was signed, there were questions in terms of collective agreements that were already in place, over whether the COLA was going to be additional to or made up part of the increase government was already paying. Since then, collective agreements developed and we, in every collective agreement, insert a proviso saying whether the COLA is part of the increase or if the increase is in addition to it.” 

If there is an agreement stating that workers will receive a €5 a week salary increase in addition to the COLA, "then you cannot come and just change the regulations, saying that if the COLA is €10, that worker would only receive €5 in terms of the COLA, as the other €5 was already given", he said.

He said that according to the International Labour Organisation recommendations, nobody could interfere in free collective bargaining, nobody could change what was agreed upon.

As for the argument that if the COLA increases across the board, then prices will also rise, he was asked whether he is worried about this, and if he believes it could happen.

 

“We are worried about the whole situation – worried about the war in Ukraine, prices, workplaces, competitiveness, inflation... But we do not believe that the solution is for employees, who are meant to be given say €10 due to inflation which has already impacted them, not to be given that amount. The problem will not be solved like that.”

He said that the GWU, in its pre-Budget document, has a number of proposals as to how the situation can be tackled, the main one being that government should continue absorbing the difference in international energy, fuel and cereal prices.

"The COLA is tied to inflation, it is a wage adjustment." He said that in the private sector, the COLA is excluded from pay rises in many collective agreements, but in the public sector many of the collective agreements state that the increase includes the COLA. “In terms of the public sector, in the lower public administration grades, it is likely that the COLA will be higher than what was listed in their collective agreement, and we need to find a solution to this. In fact meetings are planned with trade unions to speak about it and see exactly what will happen.”

 

Future discussions

Regarding the statement by Finance Minister Clyde Caruana, that if employers want changes they have to discuss them at shop floor level with Unions, he was asked whether the GWU would be willing to hold such discussions over the COLA in connection to other issues. 

He said yes, but not for this year. "We proposed in our pre-Budget document that we are willing to discuss, for the future, not for now, that in the coming years we can adjust the mechanism."

“We pride ourselves in having strong social dialogue. So let's do that, but not now. Now the mechanism is there, the COLA is being worked out, the independent board is overviewing and we are not going to touch anything in the last six weeks before the Budget. It will not be modified now.” 

He said that the Union is open to discussing how to improve the mechanism in the future, highlighting that the Union had complained in the past when the COLA was low. 

“But for this time we definitely will not accept that the rise in prices would be absorbed by employees. Between 2010 and now, the COLA average was €2.88. There were occasions when it was €0.58 and others when it was nearly €6, but on many occasions it was €1.75.” 

 

Are wages rising enough?

Asked whether he believes wages, in general, have been rising enough, he said: “In my opinion no, not enough. But are they rising? Yes, because of the lack of employees and employers poach from one another... especially when it comes to employees with technical skills.”

In terms of Budget proposals, the Union wants to see investment in trade schools. Other Budget proposals include a call for an increase in pensions and equal pay for jobs of equal value, among other things.

“There is also our call for mandatory trade union membership; to cut out abuse.”

Challenged on this issue as employees have a right not to join a Union he said: “There is the right of association. Consequently, if you have a right to associate you also have a right not to associate. What we are proposing is, and even the International Labour Organization (ILO) says, that as long as you don't make it mandatory to join a specific Union, then it’s ok.”

“We had said why we want to introduce this, as there is a lot of abuse and not everyone can be protected. Just look at the statistics. Take the gender pay gap – where the workplace is organised through a Union, there is none, but looking elsewhere it exists… When the place of work is organised through a trade union, everyone is motivated to move forward. Nowadays, the relationship between a Union and an employer is collaborative. It is not confrontational.” 

As for employees who don’t want to join a Union, he said that, according to the proposal, if someone doesn't want to join a Union, that person can. “But they are also benefitting from the wage increases and benefits brought by the Union. So there could be a fund used for educational purposes for trade unions, for capacity building, for studies and that person can contribute to that.”