Employment in the civil service

In a recent public event, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana was interviewed by Herman Grech ahead of the Budget later this month.

Referring to state employment, the minister admitted that it must be managed better. He said it had increased over the years and he was looking at the way those who retire are replaced, adding that this could save the country millions of euros. He explained that education and health must be given full priority, but implied that the rest of the public sector will be reduced. At least government is finally looking at this. Halleluiah!

The only thing that the government can actually do without raising a big rumpus is to avoid replacing those being pensioned off from public service employment with an equal number of employees. One understands that most employees in education and health have to be replaced when they retire, but it is encouraging to hear that the Finance Minister is seriously looking at the reduction of the country’s financial burden by avoiding unnecessary employment.

Looking at the numbers employed in the civil service over the years, one can see that the number was decreasing under PN administrations and then suddenly ballooned after Joseph Muscat’s Labour Party took over the running of the country.

The obsession with having (or obtaining) a job with government was being controlled, only for Labour to open the floodgates and employ more people, most of whom without any real need for them.

As the minister said, the only way out of this conundrum is to avoid employing people to replace those who are pensioned off – except where there is a real need for replacements. Replacing the number of messengers employed by the civil service in an age where communication by email is paramount does not make sense. Increasing them is crazier.   

But giving employment to party supporters – when their service is not required – has resulted in the current situation where the public service and most state corporations or organisations have an inflated labour force.

Labour has managed to get away with it because statistically public sector employees did not increase as a percentage of the total work force, thanks to the impressive increase in private employment through jobs taken up by EU nationals and third country nationals (TCN).

There is another problem. There were times when the top civil servants were recruited through examinations, and the best brains of the country would compete avidly for such posts.

Today, apart from the phenomenal increase in youngsters getting a University degree, jobs in the private sector are much better paid. While in the past, the top brains available were attracted to join the civil service, the situation has radically changed. The top brains at secondary education level now go on to have a formal third level education and most of them subsequently opt for a career in the private sector. Such careers are now more possible and the lure of the top brains to join the civil service does not exist anymore.

Government employment policies need to attract more graduates while continually reducing the unnecessary employment of people who barely know how to read or write.

Our education system still leaves many people behind it and government’s employment of such people is not helping to persuade these youngsters (and their parents) to do an effort and move forward in their education prowess. Having said that, I recognise that there are social problems that lead to situations where young people have no future except to end up with a government job in which they do practically nothing. But civil service employment at the lower levels is not a social service.

This problem persists and more efforts at resolving it should be made when these young citizens are still at school going age.

It is interesting to note that Clyde Caruana also said that the long-drawn-out restructuring of the new Air Malta – employing one third of the workforce of the previous airline that went bankrupt – should be concluded by next year. Hopefully, this time around, our national airline will not bow to the politicians and employ people unnecessarily.

Commissioner’s concern

The Commissioner for Children, Antoinette Vassallo, has expressed concern about the lack of adequate facilities for children who visit their parents/family members at Corradino Correctional Facilities (CCF) and has compiled a list of recommendations which will help to improve the facilities available for children to visit prison inmates.

The Commissioner for Children visited CCF and held a meeting with the CEO of the Correctional Services Agency and was informed that those inmates who are allowed to leave prison, can have contact visits with their children at a child-friendly premises in Marsa which is run by the NGO Mid-Dlam għad-Dawl.

However, this is not always possible and other visits are held at CCF. The Commissioner visited the visiting room at CCF which is not specifically allocated for children's visits although some visits are being held there.

The Commissioner has called for the allocation of child-friendly spaces at CCF, in which only families with children are present for the visits. Such spaces should have nappy changing facilities and have toys, books and other items available to enable children to play with their family members.

Moreover, the Commissioner is calling for age-appropriate information to be given to children about the rules and procedures of their visit as well as for the training of professionals and security officials on children's rights.

The Commissioner also insisted that children with imprisoned parents or family members are entitled to the same rights as all children and said it is her duty to ensure that all children have access to their parents as enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

I think that the Commissioner is to be congratulated for raising this issue. When someone is condemned to prison, many people react by saying that justice has been done... without even thinking of the innocent children who would be also suffering the consequences.