Obligatory trade union membership

In this year’s proposals for the 2025 Budget, the GWU has once again included the enactment of a law that obliges workers to be members of a trade union of their choice. This, in my opinion, distorts the constitutional right to be a member of a trade union since it becomes a legal obligation.

On its part, the Labour Party had included this idea in its last general election manifesto.

I understand that there are a number of workers who are exploited because they are not members of a trade union, but these tend to be third country nationals (TCNs) more than Maltese citizens. Even so, the GWU proposal is still controversial.

The right of a Maltese citizen to join a trade union is safeguarded by the Constitution. But this also implies that a Maltese citizen has the right not to be a member of any trade union. It is this right that the GWU’s proposal ignores and this is why it could well be that the GWU is insisting on a legal move that is probably unconstitutional.

The right for citizens to be a member of a trade union has been enshrined in our Constitution at least since Malta attained Independence 60 years ago. When the Labour Party won the 1971 election, it insisted on many amendments to the 1964 constitution. These did not include any amendments to the right of citizens to belong to a trade union and so this issue never arose at the time.

So why do we see this sudden push for a law that is likely to be declared as unconstitutional?

It is a fact that trade union membership is on decline – not only in Malta but in most countries in Europe. The GWU is no exception and its membership is dwindling. The proposed legal obligation will help trade unions push against this trend. Although the choice of the union is left to the worker to decide, there is no doubt that the GWU will swell its current membership numbers if this idea were to become law.

Times change and conditions of employment change with the times. But I do not believe that today there are more Maltese citizens than in the past, who are unaware of their right to join a trade union.

One therefore can make the legitimate answer whether this move would be more beneficial to the GWU itself than to its new members.

The situation among TCNs working in Malta could be different. Those who are working illegally will not be drawn into the net, while those who are working legally will be forced to pay their union dues.

Today there are many companies or other commercial entities that actually employ more TCNs than Maltese or EU nationals. The idea that TCNs are exploited – even when they are legally employed and paying National Insurance contributions – cannot, on the other hand, be discarded.

The solution could be found by making union membership a part of the conditions for work in Malta under which TCNs are permitted to work. This would not impinge on the Constitutional rights of Maltese citizens while the rights of TCNs will be better protected.

This is just a thought.

Perhaps some legal beagles might be able to suggest something else.

However, the right of Maltese citizens to opt out of trade union membership should never be touched.

Green walls that dry up

Three ‘green walls’ costing some €600,000 were left to die and have been scrapped as a government entity claimed the amount of water needed to keep them green outweighed the environmental benefits.

The vertical gardens at the Marsa and Corradino industrial estates and the Mosta Technopark were unveiled some three years ago in a blaze of publicity, attracting visits from top ministers. Press conferences and promotional videos featuring drone footage accompanied the inauguration of the vertical gardens, which were touted to improve the visual aesthetic and environment of the roads in the areas.

But now the government’s industrial land management company INDIS said it decided to discontinue the project, saying the plant-filled walls used too much water and this outweighed the benefits of keeping them. It seems this consideration was ignored when the green walls were put up.

At the time of their installation, the walls comprised almost 40,000 plants, but almost all the plants on the sites seem to have been abandoned for some time, appearing brown, dried and overgrown.

The green wall in Marsa cost €306,000, that in Corradino €163,000 while the wall at the Mosta Technopark cost almost €128,000.

The figures for all three sites included five-year maintenance costs, according to Minister Miriam Dalli who tabled the information in response to a parliamentary question.

Meanwhile, INDIS and Ambjent Malta – an entity within the environment ministry responsible for ‘implementing green infrastructure projects’– cannot seem to agree on who was responsible for maintaining the sites.

While the INDIS executive chairman claimed, the walls were meant to be maintained until 2025 by Ambjent Malta, the latter said an agreement signed in 2019 ‘clearly stipulated’ that INDIS should be responsible for maintenance.

According to INDIS, it had provided the ‘space, permits, and ancillary services,’ while Ambjent Malta had financed the project, provided ‘technical assistance’ and was to maintain the walls for five years.

INDIS decided not to continue the project beyond the five years because of the ‘lack of a circular irrigation system, which led to excessive water consumption that outweighed the environmental benefits’

It is obvious that the project was an amateurish short-sighted pre-electoral gimmick. The petty arguments between two government entities simply exacerbate the pitiful way Malta is being administered.

That’s how the people’s money is being spent!

PN decision

The PN is to be congratulated on its decision to entrust George Vital Zammit to co-ordinate work and mould the PN electoral programme.

George Vital Zammit is one step away from the political fray and can give the electoral programme the seriousness that was lacking in the last three PN electoral programmes.

A party electoral programme is not the work of just one person. It includes the input of many and collating this input into a coherent logical concept is necessary. In the past, this was done in the most skilful and clever way by the late Peter Serracino Inglott.

I believe George Vital Zammit possesses the intellectual knack required for such a task.