Pandemic saw 43,000 DIER freephone calls for employment advice

As the pandemic dealt a heavy blow to the working conditions of many, the Department for Industrial and Employment Relations (DIER) kept busy with 43,459 calls received by employees and employers alike looking for advice to better understand their employment situation.

With this, the department received 14,892 emails by people looking for information on their conditions of work as the pandemic was progressing.

Up until March, when the department's physical office had to close to the public, DIER saw 686 walk-ins. The office is slated to reopen physically to the public by mid-January.

As the authority governing employment conditions, DIER conducts investigations to ensure that the law is being enforced and observed. Abela explained that these sorts of cases involve situations where a worker isn't given their wage or statutory bonus, or sometimes even when a contract isn't granted.

Between January and mid-December, DIER investigated 882 of these cases.

From the industrial relations aspect, 65 conciliatory meetings were held throughout the year. In 88% of these meetings, no further industrial action was taken.

A total of 40 verification exercises were conducted by the department in order to determine which union represented a majority of the workers.

Abela explained the relevance of Article 42, which allows companies to temporarily change the nature of an employment contract with the permission of DIER.

"In this particular period, we needed to make changes to accept even having different working conditions, oftentimes lesser conditions, with certain flexibility. This was done thanks to Article 42,” he said.

From March onwards, around 1,000 companies were given this permission to amend the working conditions of their workers, 200 of which still benefit from the agreement. According to the minister, this legislation helped save over 45,000 workers from being laid off.

105 new cases in front of the Industrial Tribunal

This year, the industrial tribunal saw 105 new cases put forward, 89 of which were concerned with unfair dismissal. Apart from this, the tribunal passed a decision on 49 cases, brought forward either in previous years or in 2020.

Up until December 17, there are 311 pending cases on which the tribunal is to decide on.

Parental sick leave

An ongoing discussion has been the topic of sick leave for parents when their children are sick.

Abela confirmed that the department will be negotiating the matter this year.