Government steps up fight against precarious work

A number of mandatory conditions have come into force to fight precarious employment, the Office of the Prime Minister announced today.

The conditions will be included in every tender to be issued by government and must be strictly adhered to.

"All tenders to be awarded after 1 July must ensure they meet all the conditions," the OPM said.

The conditions have been published in a circular distributed to all permanent secretaries, general directors, directors and head of organisations falling under the public sector.

The conditions also apply for existent contracts and no contract will be renewed before all conditions are met. In order to ensure that all conditions are met, the government has declared that Permanent Secretaries, Directors General, Heads of Department or Heads of Public Sector Organisations will be held responsible for failure to fully implement this directive.

In his circular to the public officials, principal permanent secretary Mario Cutajar said specific instructions were given to Permanent Secretaries to ensure that any contracts awarded by government departments or public sector organisations do not lead to precarious employment situations.

Nonetheless, the process for the award of government tenders has recently come under scrutiny following the granting of service contracts, Cutajar said.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat himself, in an interview with MaltaToday, had expressed his frustration at how a contract tantamount to precarious conditions had been awarded despite his government's specific instructions.

Cutajar said government was committed to ensure that employment conditions of employees are safeguarded and guaranteed and has also started a process of dialogue with social partners aimed at seeking a way forward to address precarious conditions in the Maltese labour market.

"Notwithstanding, Government needs to set an example on this matter and therefore certain changes to tender conditions are to be implemented as from today by the Department of Contracts and Contracting Authorities," Cutajar said.

The new conditions which will form part of the mandatory conditions of any service contract are:-

1. A guarantee that the services provided will not be subcontracted to third parties.
2. A guarantee that the contractual work will not be carried out by self-employed persons 
but solely by employees of the tenderer;
3. A guarantee that all the employees of the tenderer, whether providing services to the 
contracting authority or not, have a written contract of service and are registered with the Employment & Training Corporation. On award of the contract the tenderer shall furnish a list of employees who will be providing services to the contracting authority as well as having copies of the written contracts of service of any of the employees available at any time for inspection;
4. All employees are to be given a detailed payslip containing all relevant details including the amount paid, normal hours worked, overtime hours, hours worked on Sundays and public holidays, hours availed of as leave or sick leave, a breakdown of bonuses/allowances as well as deductions made (such as social security contributions and income tax);
5. Employee's wages/salaries are paid only by direct payment in the employee's bank account;
6. The tenderer is to guarantee that the relevant bank statements of wage/salaries' deposit and copies of the detailed payslips are to be made available as and when required by the Director of Industrial & Employment Relations;
7. The contractor shall be obliged to specify the minimum hourly workers' costs in tenders involving the provision of employees' services and shall also provide a breakdown of the employee costs in tenders where the tender requires a global sum covering the services to be provided. Guidance from the Department of Industrial and Employment Relations will be sought by the contracting authority for an estimate of the minimum statutory hourly costs for the particular work in the specific sector which is being tendered for.

Apart from the above conditions which the tenderer must abide with, contracting authorities will also be obliged - for any contracts awarded - to keep accurate timesheets of the work carried out by the tenderer's employees.

The tenderer shall be bound to ensure that any employees provided to carry out services at the contracting authority shall be obliged to register their presence at the contracting authority's premises on these timesheets.

The new conditions also stipulate that a tenderer found not to adhere to the conditions will have his contract terminated.