Category: Archive – 2012

On 23-24 October Michael Galea attended
the European Social Dialogue Working Session for SMEs in Brussels. GRTU attended as part of a project
called PEGASE which aims to give exposure to members of Social Dialogue so
being able to attend the Social Dialogue Committee was an experience. The
agenda was decided by the European Social partners in agreement with the
Commission.

The
themes discussed where:

The second day started with the
"Debriefing of the Social Dialogue Committee Meeting" where each
participant expressed his views and experiences learnt in this project. Michael
Galea highlighted that Social Dialogue is an objective that businesses
especially SMEs have to seriously look at. Furthermore issues raised at this
level are important issues effecting the daily life of businesses such as
growth, employment, competitiveness, labour market functioning, flexicurity,
aging of work force, life long learning and development, health and safety,
working conditions, working time, gender equality and other issues.
Participating at this level means that the scope and activities can be agreed
according to SME priorities. This most especially in today's business
environment where we have SMEs struggling to make ends meet.

Such networks give the opportunity to
understand better the mechanism of SD functions. For example the implementation
of the framework agreements. The reporting back of the state of play of Social
Dialogue of other EU countries and how good and salient ideas be implemented
back home. The Pegase network has helped in putting the Social Dialogue on the
agenda for those countries where Social Dialogue is not yet developed and
discussions are not at a National level. This will be continued and further
developed and therefore in itself will constitute a lasting effect.

GRTU is now committed to Social
Dialogue according to the EU model, it will continue to play a role as a Social
Partner at National level, it will seek opportunities and capacity, even
through EU funded project to express SMEs needs and further develop the Social
Dialogue.

Another important tool of the Pegase
project where the newsletter and the website. The newsletter has produced
tailor made information on Social Dialogue issues for small and
micro-enterprises. It also created a link between the project members on ESD
and an information tool for each of the eleven organisations at national level.

Another part of the session was
dedicated to a presentation on "Health and Safety at work". The
current situation in Europe is that 167,000 people die every year from
occupational accidents and diseases. Other key challenges are the economic
crisis and ageing population. The speaker remarked that as a strategy to
partially address the ageing problem companies must start doing age audits. In
practice prevention means that managers and workers work together to prevent
risks with the result of fewer accidents and higher productivity. She passed
two important messages:

It
is a legal and moral duty of management to take the lead on workplace safety
and health. In practice this means that at the place of work there is a visible
and active commitment by the management and using a risk assessment to guide
decisions.

Employers
have the duty to consult their worker's representatives on health and safety
which means an effective and open dialogue, workers fully cooperating with employers,
joint problem solving and decision making, participation in implementing
solutions and promoting safe working conditions.

She also mentioned in great detail
the European Good Practice Award. This award is about outstanding and
innovative good practice solutions towards encouraging managers and employees
to actively work together to enhance workplace safety and health. In this award
the Malta OHSA is directly involved at national level. GRTU through Ms. Carmen
Borg is one of the players. On the 24th of October the inauguration ceremony
was held and the winners announced. The winner was "Actavis" and the
runner up was "Smart City".

The concluding remarks addressed the
finalisation of the Pegase project and what could be the way forward. All
participants gave their reaction and views. There was an unanimous agreement
and encouragement amongst all members that this project should carry on
preferably in Brussels or as an alternative in one of the participating
countries under an ESF project.

GRTU Director General has this week
also participated at this fact-finding seminar on Youth Employment because it
is a very important topic. Mr Farrugia made a strong intervention for greater
and practical support for small and micro enterprises, most especially, as
within them they have the possibility to recruit youths.

In September 2012, 5.520 million young
people (under 25) were unemployed in the EU-27. Compared with September 2011,
youth unemployment increased by 164 000 in the EU-27 and by 275 000
in the euro area. In September 2012, the youth unemployment rate was
22.8 % in the EU-27.

Recruitment by SMEs is the quickest and
most efficient solution there is but SMEs need a lot of support to make the
renovations and expansions they need. In the times of crises what the EU gave
to SMEs in terms of financial aid can in no way be compared to aid given to the
larger companies, which was much, much more.

We have to do more to remove and
obstacles that hamper youth mobility. Youths need to be mobilised so that
youths from areas where there is a stronger supply of qualified youths can move
to areas that have a stronger supply of employment opportunities. A change in
mentality is also required and youths should be reassured that it's safe and
easy to travel within the European Community and encouraged to go and grab the
opportunities that exist in other countries.

Education establishments also need to be more responsive to
the needs of the market and SMEs. It is imperative that any barriers to
employment by enterprise must be immediately eliminated. Countries that have
enacted employment and training schemes are comparatively doing much better in
youth employment figures, Malta is thankfully one of these countries. The only
shortage of labour we have is in the new categories that the economy is
creating.

European Economic and Social Committee
(EESC) employers` representative at EESC has this week attended the
Consultative Committee for Industrial Change meeting where an EESC draft paper,
for which Mr Pezzini is rapporteur, "Trends
and consequences of future developments in the area of personal social, health
and educational services industries in the European Union" was
discussed.

The EESC believes
that in Europe, personal social, health and educational services form an important
cornerstone of the European social model. These services, which are
interdependent and mutually reinforcing in their effectiveness, form a
"golden triangle" essential to the smooth functioning and quality of
society.

The EESC believes
that more awareness is needed of the fact that as the population ages and
demand for care grows due to the falling number of family caregivers (due,
inter alia, to the growing participation of women in the labour market), better
planning and programming has become essential, in terms of requirements and
training for healthcare workers on the one hand, and in terms of budgetary
funding priorities on the other.

The sector is very
important in terms of its contribution to EU gross domestic product, the
significant employment prospects it offers in terms of job and new-business
creation, as well as its capacity to deliver innovative, quality responses to
the structural changes and needs in European society.

Mr Farrugia stated that in the same way
in which we managed great success with Airbus by verticalising, we have to do
the same with the health sector. A list of qualified persons should be made
available as even though there is supply in Malta, for example, we still end up
employing people from Bangladesh and India. As far as possible such employment
should be filled by EU nationals. 

GRTU has on Wednesday held a very
interesting half-day seminar on health and safety in business. This seminar was
successful in raising awareness on key issues that employers must be aware of,
for the benefit of their business and that of their employees. The seminar was
sponsored by Atlas Insurance PPC Ltd.

GRTU President Paul Abela opened the
seminar by thanking the employers present for their numerous attendance and
highlighted the role organisations such as the GRTU and the Occupational,
Health and Safety Authority (OHSA) play in reaching out to business in order to
help them become aware of how health and safety can be applied in their
business and how the simple things can make a big difference. Mr Abela
emphasized that health and safety legislation should not be difficult to apply
and must be sensitive to business especially SMEs. Mr Abela concluded by saying
that many small businesses are family run so keeping a safe and healthy
environment is more important for them.

Silvio Farrugia from OHSA highlighted
that implementing H&S policies in a business is easier and less costly than
facing an incident, fines and possibly having to run a business with an
employee less because the employee has suffered an injury at work. In addition
to this the company would be enhancing their corporate image and featuring in
the newspapers because an incident happened on the place of work doesn't look good.
Employers found in breach of their H&S obligations can receive a fine or be
even taken to court with the worst case scenario be imprisonment. It was
also highlighted that employers who have adopted a voluntary occupational
health and safety management system such as ILO-OSH 2001 or OHSAS 18000 series
had the opportunity to compete and receive recognition awards – e.g. OHSA good
practice awards. This year only very few companies applied which is a pity as
surely more companies have good health and safety work practices which they can
present.

Dr. Alessia Zammit Mckeon, a lawyer,
gave a more legal perspective and stated that an enterprise employing more than
4 workers must conduct a risk assessment, document this and update it. A risk
assessment must be carried out every time the company's environment or
circumstances change such as purchasing new equipment or employing a new member
of staff. For such an assessment one must check factors such as level of
hygiene, accessibility to emergency exits, whether equipment is properly
maintained and so on. An employer must remember that apart from assessing and
informing oneself about H&S, it is also important to inform, instruct and
supervise its employees.

Gaston Degiovanni, a
safety engineer gave practical tips of how to approach safety issues and how to
avoid incidents that can harm the company's employees by giving the most common
examples they encounter on a daily basis. The most common problems include:

 The final speaker in the conference
Abigail Mamo from GRTU presented practical tips to have a safer working and
shopping environment with regards to third-party violence, which means violence
though insults, treats and injury from a parson outside the enterprise on someone
that works within the enterprise. This for instance can be a client or a thief.
It was mentioned that an employer must protect its employees from third party
violence through training and preparing them for any eventuality. Employees
that have suffered third-party violence tend to absent themselves from work
more, have low working morale or quit, therefore it is in the interest of the
employer to tackle the issue. 3Million people around the EU working in commerce
experience some form of violence at work therefore EU Social Partners decided
to work together and issue a toolkit that can be applied by SMEs, full of
inexpensive practical tips. The main points from the toolkit presented was to
conduct an evaluation of the risk of the enterprise and the employees,
prevention by improving the shop layout, and training in conflict management
and being prepared for shop-lifting and robberies.

Several participants asked questions
with problems they encounter related to H&S on a daily basis. From the
questions it became evident that the law is very severe on businesses and
sometimes even if they have nothing to do with a case because they are only the
owners of a premises that was rented out to someone that did not observe the
conditions, or they have done everything in their power and an accident still
occurs, they are still kept responsible. GRTU will be taking up the issue to
see that an employer can carry the requirements and have a guarantee that he is
safe at law, irrespective of other people's negligence.

 The feedback was very positive
from participants and GRTU and its members would like to thank Atlas Insurance
PPC Ltd for sponsoring the event and organising it in collaboration with GRTU.

Vincent Farrugia GRTU Director
General has this week participated at a conference in London in the framework
of the Single Market Week as panellist in representation of the EESC, of which
he is a member.In his intervention Mr Farrugia had
the opportunity to present the EESC Opinions related to the Digital Agenda and
eProcurment, the latter for which he was rapporteur.

Single European Transport Area: Ease
the movements of citizens and freight, reduce costs and enhance the  sustainability of European transport.

Recovery of cross border debts:
Current fragmentation of national rules on enforcement severely hampers debt
collection within the EU.

Faster cross-border insolvency
proceedings: If companies and individuals with business activities or economic
interests in EU countries other than where their core activities are located
become insolvent, there may be direct implications on the proper functioning of
the internal market.

Double taxation: In the absence of
common corporate tax rules, the interaction of national tax systems often leads
to over-taxation and double taxation.

Cross border relief: Relief for
losses sustained by companies and groups is limited to the profits realised in
the Member State in which the investment was made, meaning that companies and
groups may have to pay tax on an amount in excess of their real results at EU
level.

Financial havens: Europe's internal
market, the well-being of the financial and commercial market and the sound
development of an economy that keeps to the common rules adopted in order to safeguard
the general interest must face up to the huge amounts of money salted away in
areas and countries of convenience.

Present for the conference was also
Lord Leon Brittan, ex Trade Minister in the time of Thatcher and European
Commissioner for Trade and European Commissioner for External Affairs.

Sometimes it takes some time before
tangible results can be secured in the world of lobbying – this week however we
have achieved a goal that EuroCommerce, representing us in Brussels, and GRTU
as their national members pursued since 2005. The European Commission has
announced the withdrawal of its proposal for a mandatory origin marking scheme
for certain imported products, better known as "Made-In" label.

As the Commission's justification for
the withdrawalconfirms: "In addition to lack of agreement in the Council
and recent developments in the legal interpretation of WTO rules have rendered
this proposal outdated".

If adopted, this proposal would have
created an obligation to indicate on certain imported non-food products
(leather, footwear, clothing, …) the country of origin. This would have been
costly and bureaucratic for EU importers and retailers, whereas EU
manufacturers would have been exempted from that obligation – a classical
non-tariff barrier to trade.

If you are entering Valletta by car
and would like not to find any difficulty in finding a suitable area were you
can park car, why not use the ARRIVA: Park and Ride services. Parking is
available 24 hours a day, on a first come first served basis. Please be aware
that bus services from Park & Ride sites will be generally available from
05.00 to 23.00, but please refer to specific timetables on their website. Once
you park your car in one of the parking places you can take a shuttle bus that
drops you off at Auberge de Castille.

Overnight parking is also available
365 days a year in dedicated zones and is defined as being between the hours of
1900 hours and 0700 hours. Overnight parking and for those people who intend to
leave the site after 1900 hours is restricted to designated 24 hour parking
zones.

Persons who park their vehicle at the
Park & Ride site shall be charged the following maximum parking fee/s:

24
Hour Parking (Valid for one P&R Zone only) €1.50

7-day
ticket valid for all hours €7.50

GRTU director general Vincent
Farrugia will represent European employers in London on 5thNovember as a
speaker in a conference on the single market 20years on. Mr Farrugia will make
a presentation on his reports on e procurement in the single market and on the
removal of tax obstacles effecting citizens in the single market and on his
reports on double taxation in the single market and another on inheritance
taxes in the single market.

The Malta-EU
Steering and Action Committee (MEUSAC) and the Malta Competition and Consumer
Affairs Authority (MCCAA) will be holding an information session on Regulation
(EC) 1924/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council on nutrition and
health claims made on foods and Regulation (EU) 432 of 2012 establishing a list of permitted health claims
made on foods, other than those referring to the reduction of disease risk and
to children's development and health.

The aim of
the provisions of the Regulation is to ensure that food products placed on the market are labelled according
to Regulation (EU) 432 of 2012 so as to ensure that health claims stated on the
food labelling are permitted and authorised and not misleading for the
protection of consumers and to facilitate their choice. Contact MEUSAC for
further details.

The information session is aimed at
manufacturers, importers and distributors of foodstuffs with health claims
stated on the packaging, labelling and advertising.

The information session will be held
on Tuesday, November 13, 2012, between 10:00am and 11:00am, at MCCAA offices,
Mizzi House, Blata l-Bajda.

If you are interested in attending
the session, please fill in the registration form below and send it to MEUSAC
not later than Friday, November 9, 2012 on the following email address: