Almost 900 illegal workers opt for amnesty offer

Over 870 illegal workers applied to have their position regularised during the month-long amnesty offered by the government last August, according to information obtained from the Employment and Training Corporation.

On August 1, the issue of work permits was shifted from the Home Affairs Ministry to the ETC. The amnesty was a one-time concession aimed at regularising the position of foreign workers who had entered Malta before July 1 and for whom no application had been submitted.

It is no longer possible for non-EU foreigners to apply for work permits if they are already residing in Malta and tough penalties will be imposed on employers who breach the new laws. Contractors will be blacklisted from any government contracts for three years if they employ foreigners without a permit.

EU workers are obliged to register their application via the ETC through their employer.

"Over 800 regularisations occurred, a very large proportion of which are in construction-related trades," the ETC said. "While there continue to be applications in these occupations, the ETC is studying the areas where shortages are indicated with a view to developing the necessary training."

The amnesty was part of a pragmatic reaction to a lack of skilled personnel in various areas, primarily the construction industry.

At the time of the concession, Education Minister Louis Galea had said the number of illegal workers in Malta was estimated at 3,000.

In all, there were 2,751 foreigners with work permits in Malta as of the beginning of this October.

The list of 877 includes at least 391 construction workers, ranging from labourers to formwork erectors. The list includes applications from more unexpected jobs, including three general consultants, 10 chief executive officers or directors and a few dozen managers. There were also about 215 people employed in the hotel and catering sectors.

The number of construction workers is actually quite low when compared to the 12,000 working in the industry, which shows that the situation is not as dire as often made out to be, the chairman of the Building Industry Consultative Council, Robert Musumeci, said.

"Three per cent is not a phenomenal amount. We so often hear that the Maltese are not interested in working in the industry but this is not borne out by these figures.

"It is not easy to quantify whether the number of applications reflects the total number of illegal workers that were in Malta. Certainly smaller and medium-sized companies tend to stick to local workers and foreigners are usually working for the larger companies that take on big contracts.

"I would have thought that once this amnesty was offered, they would have taken the chance to regularise their workers rather than risk getting fined. Obviously, we will need to review the situation over time."

George Schembri, the chief executive officer of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, also called for the situation to be monitored.

"Obviously we cannot condone the employment of workers without their registration with the competent authorities. The amnesty given by the government was welcomed as it gave these people the opportunity to regularise their position without being penalised," he said.

The MHRA believes that in some cases, the employer refrains from regularising the position of his or her workforce to save on paying benefits on behalf of the employee, a practice it also condemned.

It too saw the number of applicants regularised under the amnesty as being a fraction of the total workforce in hotels and catering.

"The 215 quoted, who came forward to regularise their position, is a mere 2.5 per cent out of the total workforce directly employed in the industry and probably in most cases these were engaged in the smaller establishments that do not have the proper set-up and find it easier to engage and fire at will depending upon requirements," he said.