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Zminijietna - Voice of the Left

Press Release 13/05/08

Minister Dalli urged to stand up for part-time workers

Zminijietna - Voice of the Left welcomed Social Policy Minister John Dalli’s instructions that whoever bids for government contracts should also include what conditions of work they are offering workers. Zminijietna added that a substantial amount of workers employed by such contractors work on a part-time basis.

“Zminijietna urges Minister Dalli to tackle the increased exploitation of part-time workers in various sectors of the Maltese economy. These include not only workers of private contractors who are outsourced by Government, but also many part-time workers employed in private sector jobs such as retailing, catering, tourism, construction, education, cleaning, clerical work and various forms services, including those offered by various franchises”.

“Many part-time workers are still not being granted their legal rights by private employers. They are therefore being denied rights such as vacation leave, sick leave and bonuses. Many are working long working hours yet are still forced to register as part-time. Others are forced to register as self-employed so as to avoid obtaining their legal rights”.

“Another issue concerning part-timers is lack of unionisation. Many workers, are denied the right to join trade-unions and are threatened that they will lose their job if they do so. Young workers are often employed by such companies, thus making it easier to impose exploitative practices and to hire and fire workers”.

“Part-time work is constantly increasing in Malta, to such an extent that there are around 47,000 part-time workers, 26,000 of whom work only part-time. According to the National Statistics Office, the latter increased by 2,050 in the 12 months up to December 2007. For many, the exploitative conditions mentioned previously are the only option due to lack of better opportunities”.

“Many such workers are afraid of reporting their employers to the authorities due to the negative repercussions they may face at work. Government should tackle such exploitation”.

Michael Briguglio
Public Relations Officer

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