Malta Chamber of SMEs ‘fostering workers’ to prevent imminent layoffs

The Malta Chamber of SMEs has started an initiative of “fostering workers” to save employees from imminent redundancies as a result of the Covid-19 epidemic.

The Chamber has sent out emails to various businesses around Malta to urge them to hang on a while longer before laying off any employees.

“We ask you, where possible, to hang in there and support your employees a while longer as the government is promising that the real measures we are asking for are not far away,” a Chamber email sent to businesses read.

Chamber of SMEs CEO, Abigail Mamo, told MaltaToday that the “fostering” initiative was drawn up after the Chamber received various calls from businesses who were thinking of laying off redundant employees during the partial lockdown.

“Very reluctantly, people have been calling us and telling us that they might be laying off some workers. However, at the same time, the current crisis has created pockets of opportunities that require a lot of manpower such as in the supermarket sector and in the distribution sector. Our initiative is to help employees at the risk of being laid off to be matched with these opportunities,” Mamo said.

The email sent by the Chamber urged businesses to offer their employees these opportunities where possible and to even supply vehicles or equipment that is available for use.

Mamo said that the initiative has already started operating and that the Chamber was busy matchmaking.

“This could help even until certain government measures are in place,” she said.

The Chamber said that very few sectors are doing well or are still operational. “Nobody is looking to make any profit out of this. The only aim is to keep workers in employment to help each other.”