Failing to enact the Equality Act leaves workers vulnerable to abuse | Claria Cutajar

No worker should be denied a job because of the colour of their skin, the religion they practise, or the gender they identify with. No person should be denied a service because of their age, their politics, or their nationality. While these statements seem obvious, the Maltese law does not seem to wholly agree due to the many loopholes that allow employers to discriminate against workers without consequence.

In theory, there are laws that prevent this form of abuse. In practice, the current equality legal framework has numerous problems. In order to meet the minimum criteria of EU directives, provisions and legal notices were patched in over the years, leading to contradictory definitions, incoherent provisions, and, overall, a very weak law that does not provide effective redress to victims of discrimination.

In 2015, then Minister Helena Dalli proposed two bills, namely the Equality Bill and the Human Rights and Equality Commission Bill, in order to address these weaknesses and ensure decent protection from discrimination. After lengthy discussions and consultations, former Parliamentary Secretary Rosianne Cutajar tabled the bills in Parliament in 2019. However, the process leading to their enactment stalled after the bills encountered fierce opposition from employers’ associations, parts of the Church, and ultra-conservative elements within the medical profession. The bills were eventually dropped as the Prime Minister called an election, forcing Parliament to dissolve.

Powerful entities with copious financial resources and extensive networks among the traditional elite used their influence to stop a legal reform that would have challenged their privileges and held everyone accountable for abusive behaviour.

Discrimination is apparent in various spheres of employment, both on an individual level and on a structural one. When it comes to recruitment, studies found that even with an identical CV, women, migrants, and people from minority groups have a lower chance of being called for an interview. Additionally, when in employment, people from these groups often have lower pay, worse work conditions, are less likely to be given promotions, and are more likely to be harassed in the workplace.

While all workers can experience injustice and exploitation, historically, the exploitation of workers has rested heavily on the devaluation of certain social groups – such as women, migrants, and young persons – who are expected to settle for inferior pay and work conditions, and to stay mum when they face abuse.

In fact, the minimum wage for those under 18 is still less than the national minimum wage. Despite all the progress made in the last few years, women still earn less than men. Migrants are still forced to work illegally due to lack of documentation. All these issues put these social groups in a position where it is more likely for them to experience injustice and exploitation.

The new equality law would have started to seriously address this inequality in a targeted manner that goes beyond the very general and often ineffective provision in the current employment legislation. For example, the new law would have allowed people to request and receive information on why they were not given a job or why they were denied promotions.

It would have also created an Equality Board that would provide speedy and effective remedies through binding decisions, the imposition of penalties and interim measures, as well as the awarding of compensation if necessary. All of this is absent under the current law.

All workers will benefit from a strengthened Equality law. As an example, all teachers will benefit when church schools are denied the right to discriminate against their staff. All employees will benefit when employers are forced to be transparent and provide information when it comes to who they employ and who gets promoted. The failed enactment of a new equality law has left workers, especially the most vulnerable ones, with minimal protection against discrimination.

As is often the case, this is a fight between the many that will benefit from the law and the privileged few who continue to resist accountability. It is the thousands of workers against the few employers who put women and minority groups at a disadvantage in the workplace. It is the many teachers against the top management of certain Church schools that want to have control over, and interfere in, the private life and personal opinions of their employees.

Since 2015, when the discussion about reforming the equality law commenced, Government recognised that the current legal framework is totally inadequate to effectively deal with discrimination and abuse. Nothing has changed since.

Based on this recognition, the Equality Bill and the Human Rights and Equality Commission Bill should be presented immediately to Parliament when it reopens – strengthened, not watered-down – and enacted in the shortest time possible.

Claria Cutajar is a member of Moviment Graffitti