On the 30 June 2015, H.E. President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca has officially launched the MCCF 1 Euro Campaign in aid of the Malta Community Chest Fund. The aim of the campaign is to collect funds to help people in need of specialised assistance when they suffer from chronic diseases or other situations in which the MCCF could be involved.
The aim of the 1 Euro campaign is to urge employees to complement the various initiatives taken by companies to raise funds for such worthy causes by agreeing to donate 1 Euro per month to MCCF. The donation will be made through a request which will be made to the employer to deduct 1 Euro from their salary every month.
The MEA has pledged support for this initiative and encourages employers to participate by displaying the attached notice on the notice board or else distributing it among employees. Payroll adjustments should be made accordingly.
Dowload the notice and the form which the employees are to fill to authorise the deductions.
The MEA expressed its satisfaction at the news that the Council of the EU took Malta out of the excessive deficit procedure. read more
The Malta Employers’ Association has won the National Enterprise Support Award through its submission of an application based on the project: Strengthening the Business Environment through Active Social Dialogue. This achievement is symbolic as it occurs at a time when the MEA is celebrating its fifty years since it was founded. Throughout this time it has always been a major player in social dialogue in Malta. This is the first time that MEA has participated in this competition.
The Association based its application on the activities organised during the past years, including the ESF outreach programme to Micro Enterprises; the organisation of courses and training sessions; the Television programme; and the establishment of the SME help desk eighteen months ago. All these activities have helped to build the professional capacity of employers and also to strengthen social dialogue and stable industrial relations in Malta, which is one of the key ingredients for competitiveness. For example, the project ‘Capacity Building for Equipping and Representing Micro Business Employers’ included 22 training seminars which were attended by 235 local entrepreneurs. This project, which was co-financed with the European Social Fund, also included an outreach exercise with no less than 750 micro employers, and more than 6000 copies of our Human Resources information booklet were distributed. All this has been achieved with a lean secretariat and support from council members, and, at the end of the day, the real winner is not MEA, but employers who have benefitted from these services.
Through this award, MEA shall be participating in the European Enterprise Promotion Awards in November. The secretariat is currently working on a submission for this event.
Such recognition gives us further incentive and energy to think of innovative ways to improve the services that we offer our members.
The report of the Director General, which focuses on ‘The Future of Work Centenary Initiative’ is a refreshing attempt to address contemporary issues facing the world of work, while projecting a pathway that should guide the discussions between the social partners within the ILO and also with their constituents at national level in the years to come. read more
The MEA urged Government and the Opposition to serenely allow the application of rules and procedures to establish clear accountabilities in respect of substandard works carried out at Mater Dei Hospital.
The MEA added that Government should pursue its inalienable, and evidently guaranteed right, to compensation for manifestly substandard work for which Contractors got paid in full at agreed rates.
The MEA stated that this week’s debate in parliament about the employment of disabled persons was strongly biased against employers and gave the impression that many …
The Malta Employers’ Association stated that, in principle, it is against any development outside ODZ areas. The association stated that although it is in favour of developing Malta’s potential to attract investment in education, something that it had formally proposed to the political parties in its memorandum before the last elections, this should be done in a manner that respects the country’s natural environment. There should be a concerted effort to attract quality educational institutions in sites that are already developed or dilapidated, of which there are many in Malta.
The Association has called on the MCESD to place this item on the agenda for discussion consultation with the social partners.
In his address to MEA members of the occasion of the Association annual general meeting, the president Mr. Arthur Muscat spoke at length about union rivalry and urged that this issue needs to be addressed urgently.
‘Currently, we are very much concerned about the state of industrial relations in Malta, not as much by the relationship between the employers and unions, but by the manner in which unions are treating each other. Conflict within the trade union camp is of no benefit to anybody, including employers. This concern is very much summed up in a public statement which was issued this week, and I quote:
‘Unions are ending up negotiating according to what other trade unions are offering, and not in accordance to what employees deserve. They also often attempt to reach out to members of the opposing union, rather than employees who are not registered with any of them.’ This is a frank, and I must say sincere, admission not by an employers’ association, but by none other than Josef Vella, the General Secretary of the Union Haddiema Maghqudin, the second largest union in Malta. Mr Vella is here lamenting Union rivalries on recognition claims.
The Malta Employers’ Association is insisting that these adversarial union verification confrontations need to be addressed because this state of affairs is threatening the competitiveness of many companies in Malta. The fact that unions themselves now have the courage to admit that the collective bargaining exercise has become a matter of self-preservation, with a disregard to what employees actually deserve in return for their productivity and the company’s performance, is alarming and government should take such statements very seriously. What is implied here is that the current state of collective bargaining, with a background of intense union rivalry, can drive companies out of business and that the same workers, who are aspiring for better conditions of employment through a collective agreement, may risk losing their livelihood as a result of these wars between unions. It is no surprise, in face of this severe inter Union strife, that Her Excellency the President has opted to set up the President’s Forum to promote better relationships and ethical behaviour between unions.’
He referred to a recent statement by Mr. Josef Vella – the UHM General Secretary – that unions are negotiating on the basis of what other trade unions are offering rather than on the basis of productivity, and stressed that this is creating dangers for the sustainability of many businesses and also to the livelihood of employees. He also reiterated that the government took a wrong decision to set up a board to determine union recognition which is separate from the Department of industrial and Employment Relations, and that the MEA has presented concrete proposals – through changes in the Employment and Industrial Relations Act (EIRA) – how union recognition issues can be resolved in an objective manner. With respect to other proposed changes in the EIRA, Mr. Muscat stated that the Association is motivated by responsibility, not popularity.
The Malta Employers’ Association and PricewaterhouseCoopers are organising the Course: Employment – Fiscal and Practical Considerations starting in April 2015.
An important aspect of employing people is payroll management, which involves knowledge about the complexities of income tax computations, social security, exemptions and other employer obligations involved in the correct computation of different aspects of remuneration. The course will consist of focused sessions about these aspects of employment.
For registrations or further info, kindly contact us on 21237585 / 21222992 or email us on admin@maltaemployers.com.
In a reaction to the MUMN’s media release about the new process adopted for union verification, the Malta Employers’ Association stated that the MUMN has clearly missed the whole point concerning the Association’s objections. In its statement, the MUMN is clearly implying that all employees of the Department of Employment and Industrial Relations were not competent, objective or willing to perform their duties properly. Even if this were the case, the solution would have been to change particular officers concerned rather than the Minister unilaterally divesting the Director and his Department of union recognition verification responsibilities and proceeding instead to establish a separate body for this union verification function.
The MUMN is not understanding and confusing issues when it says that previously there was no consultation about who is doing the verification. No consultation was necessary as the responsibility for verification, according to law, lies squarely on the Director of Employment and Industrial Relations in his capacity as the Registrar of Trade Unions. It is entirely up to the Director to manage the department to ensure that such verifications are made in a professional and objective manner by him or his so delegated qualified employees.
The MEA finds it very surprising that a Union, in this case the MUMN, finds no objection to the fact that, perilously, the law has been turned on its head and the process of union recognition has been changed without any consultation with the stakeholders involved, and when established structures to handle such matters – such as the Employment Relations Board – have been completely bypassed. Is it possible that the MUMN, or any other Union, is not aware of the possible consequences of such precedents? The minister acted hastily when she unilaterally decided to establish this recognition committee, or whatever it is called, just because a union, UHM, claimed recognition of particular employees working at the DIER. It is a fact known to all that the existing legislation contains clear provisions which enable any employer – including government – to hold back a limited number of employees from becoming trade union members if such membership carries a conflict of interest with their duties. It is therefore for these reasons that the Association has issued a directive to its members not to attend any meetings called by this committee before a proper and democratic consultation process occurs. The MEA urges the Minister to respect and make use of current established social dialogue structures and procedures.
