WATCH | Josef Bugeja: ‘Whoever abuses workers should be criminally charged and named’

The rise of platform work is one of many challenges to workers’ rights, Josef Bugeja says as he reflects on the significance of Workers’ Day.

I meet the GWU secretary general on the eve of 1 May; the international day dedicated to workers and an occasion to celebrate the rights acquired by workers over the decades.

Bugeja tells me the day is also a reminder of the new challenges for workers’ rights in an ever-evolving world. He says platform workers are one such category requiring protection.

I ask him whether he agrees with a four-day work week. Bugeja agrees. As a matter of fact, he tells me that he agrees with any other proposals that give workers a more balanced lifestyle. However, he notes that such a radical change would need to be implemented through global union efforts.

Bugeja also expresses his complete opposition to the concept of ‘doing more with less’. He adds that despite local employee shortages, workers should not be made to bear excessive loads and get burned out in the name of efficiency.

Bugeja speaks of Malta’s modern realities with regards to countless foreign workers who are abused. He blasts employers who show no sympathy toward their employees and details a number of cases, which he calls “modern slavery”.

The following is an excerpt from the interview.

The full interview can also be viewed on our socials.

Workers and their conditions in Malta have dramatically changed in recent years. First of all, what is the significance of Workers’ Day in this day and age?

We celebrate the achievements made along the years, and I’m not talking about the Industrial Revolution and the 40-hour work week, but more recently there were big changes when it comes to work.

Work is always changing, but today, social partners and authorities are struggling to keep up with the fast rate of change. The concept of platform work is an example of this. Since the Industrial Revolution, you always had employers and employees. All of a sudden, this has ended with the rise of platform work…

But apart from celebrating all the changes that we’ve seen, we look at the upcoming challenges, such as the green and digital transition. Here the GWU believes that employers must not only strive for economically sustainable changes, but socially sustainable changes where employees’ work is dignified…

One challenge in particular is the growing mental toll on employees. Work hours seem to be expanding, it’s becoming more difficult to keep up with life. We hear of possible solutions such as the four-day work week. Do you think such radical changes are needed to address these issues?

One of the things we proposed was in fact the four-day week. We discussed this with the private and public sector, and the private sector specifically represents some global companies that are ultra-competitive. If the same company in another country works 40 hours a week and we work 32 hours, there is unjust competition against the Maltese. They won’t be as productive, so the private sector says if the change is rolled out around the world, there will be no problem.

But we also discussed a more radical proposal; Why do we still measure work as 40 hours a week? If you write an article in eight hours, then your work is measured as eight hours, but if you write it in four hours, you’ve still produced your product.

Around the world we tie work to the 40-hour work week. But if we leave that concept and instead focus on the value of your work? If you write an article in less time, you increase productivity and efficiency. We had a proposal that was welcomed by government…

Burnout is another problem that seems to be on the rise among many different workers. How can we fight burnout in Malta when, at the end of the day, there are fewer employees available for the work that needs to be done?

I’ve had many discussions with employers on this. One of the aspects where we absolutely disagree on is ‘making more with less’. There is a limit that cannot be surpassed because we are burning people out. We don’t have the capacity to do certain things. In order to be more productive, employers try to impose more responsibilities on individual employees. I don’t blame them but that’s the situation we’re in.

We have one of the most productive and efficient workforces. Employers say we can always improve. Of course, we can, just as wages can always improve. But there is a limit for employees…

We’ve had cases where workers were told to work on their off days. They would work a day and a night, rest, and they would be back at work during their off day. There are too many workplaces where employees are forced to work because they don’t have enough employees…

Right now, mandatory union membership is being discussed…

Automatic membership.

Right, automatic membership. Those who disagree say that it goes against one’s choice whether to be part of a union and if so, which union they should be part of. How do you respond to this criticism?

What I cannot accept is having employers speaking about what their employees need. They have no right to speak about what employees need, just as I don’t speak about the needs of employers.

Under this proposal, the only thing you cannot do is to tell an employee that they must be a member of a particular union. There are ways and means to do it without such as an opt-out mechanism.

Industrial relations in Malta are conducted on an enterprise level. So, if 51% of employees in a particular business or entity are part of our union, we can perform collective bargaining, which covers all the company’s employees. This means that those 51% are contributing [to the union] through a fee and the other 49% are enjoying the same benefits without paying union membership.

God, forbid we distinguish between union members and non-members in collective bargaining but this still needs to be addressed…

The phenomenon of foreign workers in Malta is relatively new. We often see authorities make a show out of immigrants who reside here illegally. But we rarely see the same show against their employers. Do you think there is an imbalance between the show of force against these workers and their employers?

As the GWU we treat all workers the same, regardless of their nationality…

In Malta there are two national forums; the MCESD and the Employment Relations Board which discusses the laws pertaining to work. Trade unions and employers’ associations have agreed on a legal framework that revolves around naming and shaming and we’re waiting on government to implement it.

Whoever abuses these workers should be arraigned, charged criminally, and they should be named as abusers. The Department for Industrial and Employment Relations (DIER) does some fantastic work. We as a union take steps against abusive employers, but we can only take action in industrial tribunals, while DIER can take criminal action.

They have initiated a lot of cases and in many of them, the employer settles unpaid wages right before procedures start so the case is dropped.

I cannot understand how there are employers, and they are in a minority, who abuse and profit at the expense of miserable work conditions for their employees. I agree with you that they should be named so that everyone knows that they are abusing people. It’s not right, and it tarnishes Malta’s reputation.