Fines for black market labour to increase to €2,500

The fines for those employing unregistered workers will rise from €58.23 per employee to €500, rising to a maximum of €2,500 per employee, if employers refuse to pay up straight away and take the case to court.

Employment minister Evarist Bartolo and ETC chairperson Clyde Caruana announced the measures in a press conference to present two consultations documents about employment.

The two public consultation documents, to be made available online and open until 18 May, will look at the creation of job brokerage offices and the implementation of the Jobs Plus act respectively.

“The fines are meant to act as deterrents to precarious jobs and they seek to create a level playing field both for foreign and Maltese employees facing unfair competition from foreign employees,” Bartolo said. 

Bartolo said that the Job Brokerage offices sought to banish the market created by refugees and asylum seekers staying in detention centres waiting for their applications to be processes or for their return if their application was rejected. He explained that the scheme would  ensure a drop in precarious work, as well as safeguard the dignity of workers regardless of race, ethnicity and religion.

“The act will ensure that no matter what the nationality, the lowest pay people can receive is the minimum wage,” he said, adding that this would give dignity to workers, as well as give fairer competition to Maltese employees missing out on jobs due to the cheap payment given to foreign workers.

Caruana added that the government would issue a public-private-partnership to man offices in Marsa and Hal Far and to ensure that people making use of the services of refugees, will be obliged to go to the offices.

“The office will create a skills profile as well as voucher systems for prospective employers needing the services to fill in according to the type of job needed, as well as the duration of the job in question,” he said, adding that the vouchers would be used to verify whether the companies were confirming or not during spot checks carried out by the inspectorate department.

Caruana added that service providers would get a minimum of 3.80 an hour, and that refugees would be considered as self-employed, to avoid exploitation.

“Employers will also be bound to use services from the same person for under 600 hours a year to avoid exploitation and encourage employers to hire those in question as they would any other employee if they would like to continue using their services.” 

Caruana explained that the fines would also apply to unregistered employees from European member states.

“From our spot checks or has become clear that many unregistered European citizens are being employed and not paid fairly in sectors like the catering business,” Caruana said.

He explained that the inspectorate department, which would try to increase manpower from eight to sixteen, held some 25 spot checks a day, resulting in around half of the employees in each establishment not having the necessary work permits.

“Ensuring that everyone gets the minimum wage will also mean that European citizens will be able to contribute to the local tax system,” Bartolo added.

Discussing the Jobs Plus act, Bartolo said that ETC had experienced a number of changes over the years, with roles changing from just an entity to register unemployment into an entity where people could find even different employment opportunities.

“The act proposes both a different name for the corporation, as well as having better skills matching and training,” Bartolo said.

Caruana said that ETC had been launched around 25 years ago, with a few cosmetic amendments to the act over the years, but that the new act would be the biggest overhaul the corporation had experienced so far.

"This follows on from various changes both within the corporation and the technologies available to it and the needs of the people," he said.

Caruana added that the new matching system would focus on skills rather than just employment history, with the ultimate aim of increasing employment opportunities and cutting down on waiting times.

He added that one of the proposals also stipulated that registered individuals could refuse training and assistance from the corporation for the first three months, but that once the time was up, they could be struck off the register for six months.

“Thanks to the electronic system we have, the corporation will be notified once this six month period is over, so that we can avoid having abuses of this system where people register as unemployed in order to receive benefits.”

“Jobs Plus will also have the power to collect data about students leaving secondary school to reach more students early and make sure they are engaged in the government’s youth guarantee,” Caruana said.

He added that the corporation would also have the power to access disability registers and to inform employers, if those registered as disabled accept, who their disabled employees are.