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Malta

Background information on industrial relations in Malta

• 03 May 2012
  Malta: Unions committed to fair treatment for immigrant workers

  A European Union-funded project examining discrimination in the workplace has found that Maltese trade unions respond well to specific issues affecting immigrants. The report highlights union initiatives to ensure equal pay and conditions for immigrant employees and publicise the pressures they face in the labour market. It concludes, however, that unions are not formulating more general anti-discrimination strategies that might address such problems before they arise.

• 24 Apr 2012
  Malta: Malta: Employment and Industrial Relations in the Hotels and Restaurants

  Although the sector was badly affected by the global downturn in 2009, the effects on the employment level were marginal. An increase in undeclared employment and temporary employment of women, youth and migrants is more likely in the high season. While more could be done in the cases of undeclared work, the issue of temporary employment has been tackled mostly with improvement in part-time legislation. The sector seems to be adapting well to the shift from organised to individual tourism while inflation in energy prices has been strongly opposed by both employers’ associations and trade unions.

• 23 Apr 2012
  Malta: No consultation on labour law change

  In 2011, Malta added an amendment to its Employment and Industrial Relations Act 2002 (EIRA), empowering the minister responsible for transport to declare specific jobs in land and sea-based transport in Malta as ‘essential services’, effectively removing the right to strike from transport workers. This change to labour law was made without consulting the social partners and is in contrast to the consensual approach that characterised the evolution of the EIRA a decade ago.

• 05 Apr 2012
  Malta: Malta: The representativeness of trade unions and employer associations in the insurance sector

  The insurance sector is a small sector which, nonetheless, has doubled in size over the past few years. Employee representation in the sector is rather low and only loosely regulated by collective agreements. Although there is no workers’ union specifically dedicated to this industry, workers in the insurance sector may join either of three unions. In reality, only two unions have members from this sector, and only one of these has collective agreements with employers in the sector.

• 27 Mar 2012
  Malta: Malta: The representativeness of trade unions and employer associations in the paper sector

  The paper sector in Malta is very small and consists of about 25 companies employing 0.15% of the country’s total workers. Most of the companies in this sector are micro-enterprises or small local enterprises. Only one trade union participates in sectoral collective bargaining, namely the General Workers’ Union (GWU), which represents an estimated 34% of the employees in the sector. There are no employers’ associations operating in the sector.

• 07 Mar 2012
  Malta: Malta: The representativeness of trade unions and employer associations in the sea fisheries sector

  Although fishing has always been practised in the Maltese Islands, the sector remains small both in numerical and economic terms. The number of people employed within this sector make up less than 1% of the total employed people in Malta and the vast majority of these are self-employed This makes the number of companies within the sector, which tend to be small and family-run, high both in relation to the employees and in relation to the number of companies in other sectors. Thus, there is no trade union representation in this sector. However, since most people working in the fisheries sector are self-employed, two cooperatives specifically for people working in the fisheries sector have developed.

• 03 Feb 2012
  Malta: Union rights granted to police but not other security services

  Malta’s trade union movement has welcomed the government’s acceptance of trade union membership for police, after its long campaign for these rights. However, the General Workers’ Union was disappointed by the decision to simply transform the Malta Police Association (MPA) into a trade union because this limits membership to the police, and leaves other branches of the security services without a union. It is also feared that the MPA will still be governed by the Police Act.

• 23 Jan 2012
  Malta: Pre-budget discussion among social partners

  Before Malta’s budget is presented, the social partners declare their priorities and make proposals to the Minister of Finance at a meeting held at the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development. The main issues that emerged from this dialogue in October 2011 were taxation, the Cost of Living Allowance, incentives and initiatives to boost the Maltese economy and the participation of women in the labour market. Some measures announced in the budget addressed these issues.