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GRTU requests regularisation of the Current Chaotic Employment System for Migrants
18 June 2008
GRTU has taken once again the initiative and sent a formal complaint to Minister Tonio Fenech and Minister John Dalli on the current unacceptable situation revolving around employment and migrants. A number of GRTU members from the construction, repairs, and especially from the waste carriers sectors depend on the employment of migrants. Employers go to Marsa early in the morning, pick up the number of migrants they need and pay the price to each individual migrant; cash plus provision of food and drink. Many a time migrants object to the standard rate and refuse to proceed with work thus causing the employer to return to Marsa to bring another batch of workers.
The present system is causing unnecessary pressure on employers as they do not have the necessary cash to pay on a daily basis for employment service which effectively avails all other legal implications, most of all, the payment of social contributions.
The current system also discriminates against Maltese workers. Maltese workers are paid on a weekly or bi-weekly basis and receive no additional subsistence while the migrant worker get subsistence, lodgings and daily food and is paid cash on a daily basis.
GRTU has therefore proposed a system that removes the ugly and unacceptable daily scenes at Marsa and elsewhere were migrants congregate to seek employment.
The system that GRTU is proposing will regularise the system based on a temporarily casual work relationships and on effectively sustaining businesses who need a regular flow of workers, though not necessarily the same individuals, to meet their obligations under contract: This will effectively remove the uncertainty there exist both fiscal and security wise, and in terms of labour laws, even though the end result is costlier to employers represented by GRTU. It will regularise the issue of social contributions paid by migrants.
GRTU has requested an urgent meeting with the above mentioned Ministers last week, this to give us an early opportunity to discuss the matter further, we are still however waiting for a reply.
