Government to reform labour migration policy

After 10 years of economic growth and a population explosion caused by the importation of foreign workers, government is in the process of updating its labour migration policy. 

Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri, who was handed the labour portfolio last January, has told MaltaToday the policy will have workers’ rights at its core. 

“We are in the process of consulting with all stakeholders after which we will publish our thoughts for further public consultation with the hope of starting to roll out new policies next year,” Camilleri said in an interview. 

The minister insisted the new policy aims to strengthen workers’ rights and foster higher employee retention rates. 

“We have a lot of good companies that pay well and adhere to workers’ rights and this shows in the good employee retention rate they have. But we have other companies that have very high turnover rates because they abuse workers and we will stand up to these companies,” Camilleri said. 

Research carried out by the Central Bank of Malta last year showed that foreign workers from outside the EU are twice as likely as Maltese workers to present a termination notice within a year of being employed. 

The research revealed that 36% of third country nationals have their job terminated within a year, while 15% have their jobs terminated in just three months. 

Camilleri said the high turnover among foreign workers was not healthy for them because they would not have had time to integrate and are more at risk of being abused; and it was not healthy for companies who have to retrain new people, the economy and society. 

The minister said two key planks of the new policy would be the emphasis on training, upskilling and reskilling of Maltese workers and the adoption of a skills based approach when attracting foreign labour. 

“We have to look at the skills required by the economy and focus on these. We need more nurses and carers but there is no need for more couriers and cab drivers,” Camilleri said. 

Over the past few weeks the government took the decision to stop new work permits for food couriers and cab drivers after JobsPlus found the market was saturated. 

When asked whether it would have been better had this policy been introduced before the foreign labour explosion happened, Camilleri insisted the country is in a much better position today than it was in 2013, which allows it to go down a certain road. 

“It was harder 10 years ago because the economy was stagnant and there was high unemployment and something had to be done. Today, we do not have those problems but we have new challenges that we want to address,” he said.