MEA boss urges government allocate more resources fight precarity

Government should allocate sufficient resources to enforce existing legislation to fight precarious work, the director general of the Malta Employers' Association, Joe Farrugia said.

In his address to the International Labour Organisation general assembly, Farrugia focused on the issue being raised by government and unions of precarious work.

He insisted that 'employers have no issue with using the mechanisms in our social dialogue framework to curb any type of employee exploitation'.

Farrugia urged social partners to stop chasing ghosts and instead identify concrete actions which each of the social partners should take to arrive at a holistic and mutually acceptable solution through social dialogue.

The employers' representative proposed that government has to allocate sufficient resources to enforce existing legislation, and also to set a decent minimum hourly rate for public procurement of labour intensive services to put a stop to the competitive downward spiral which has eroded profit margins and affected the working conditions of many employees.

He added that the principle of freedom of association has to be respected by both employers and unions.

"Union membership is an individual choice which, as per ILO conventions, should not be subject to coercion by unions, nor denied by employers," Farrugia said.

He mentioned the proposal by the Malta Employers Association to implement a services charter to be governed by a tripartite committee as a self regulating instrument to ensure a level playing field between operators in the security, cleaning and care working sectors which would be more effective and enforceable than creating unnecessary legislation which will lead to more labour market rigidities, which will discourage job creation.