Employees in around 200 companies are still working under conditions less than stipulated in their contract, including reduced pay, reduced working hours and reduced benefits, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Minister Carmelo Abela said that since March, some 1000 companies reached an agreement with the Department of Employment and Industrial Relations (DIER) to put their staff on reduced benefits.

The revised conditions are reviewed every four weeks and 200 companies, mainly in the tourism industry, still have the permit.

Abela estimated that the mechanism had allowed 25,000 people to keep their jobs.

“We had to make sure that we were flexible enough to make the necessary exceptions in order to help people stay afloat,” he said.

During a press conference on Monday, Abela also said the department received a total of 36,827 calls to a helpline for employees and 6,632 on a line for employers. 

Customer support staff replied to 14,892 e-mails. 

Abela gave a rundown of all the work carried out by DIER throughout the year, which includes 882 investigations carried out across all of its departments.

The department oversees disputes related to misconduct in relation to employment, including unjust terminations, as well as disputes between employers and employees.

The industrial relations board, which holds meetings between parties in dispute,  was able to resolve 88 per cent of the disputes, meaning the majority of these issues did not escalate to industrial actions.

The industrial tribunal, whose role it is to hear and decide on employment disputes, received 110 new cases this year, 89 of which were about wrongful termination, nine on discrimination, 11 on harassment and one industrial dispute.

As of December 17, the tribunal had decided on 49 cases while 311 cases remain pending.

The minister said that due to COVID-19 restrictions, the board was unable to meet between March and June, which impacted its ability to listen to witness testimonies.