In most Western countries, the consumerist and throwaway culture results in many businesses treating their employees as ‘disposable commodities’. They can be exchanged, moved around and replaced easily and at any time. Once the ‘commodity’ has been squeezed to the maximum, it can be replaced with a fresh recruit.
During the May Day celebrations, NGOs and trade union leaders acted as the voice of conscience of our society, which needs to challenge the status quo on how vulnerable workers are treated.
Fourteen NGO activists gathered at Castille Square, Valletta to launch a document called Justice for Workers, which calls for improving working conditions. They made seven recommendations to strengthen conditions for low-paid workers. They argue workers are not machines and Malta’s growing economy now depends on cheap foreign labour, with wages remaining low and exploitation increasing.
Josef Bugeja, the General Workers’ Union’s general secretary, made similar observations and referred to the growing exploitation of workers, especially low-skilled foreign workers.
Human work must never be treated as a commodity. The legislative and administrative arm of government, the business community and trade unions must move from making pious declarations on respecting workers’ rights to taking concrete action to improve people’s working lives. By doing this, they will ultimately improve our society.
Business leaders often repeat the cliché “employees are our greatest asset”. In the real world, not enough businesses are committed to treating workers as human beings with the right to balance work and family life. Business leaders, shareholders and investors must respond to societal expectations and maintain the fragile balance of wealth creation and employee welfare.
The Justice for Workers document makes some sensible recommendations that professionals in human resources management and labour market policymakers will do well to adopt.
Stricter regulatory oversight to curb workers’ exploitation must be a top priority. The combination of language barriers and immigrant status is leaving many vulnerable third-country workers exposed to workplace exploitation. Limited language skills make it harder to know labour rights safety standards or report unsafe conditions. Of course, an endemic regulatory mindset of light-touch enforcement only adds to the risks of vulnerable workers.
So, what needs to be done? We need to make a cultural shift. The solution cannot be worker participation in management.
Too many failed experiments built on these notions show this is not the best way forward. Neither is mandatory trade union membership, as proposed by trade unions, the silver bullet that will bring about this cultural shift.
The change in mindset must come first from public policymakers. They must ensure that worker-centred legislation is updated and enforced without fail. Far too many lives have been lost in the last few years because of the regulators’ failure to enforce health and safety regulations.
Employers must also understand that employees have feelings and responsibilities to their families and society. They have a right to work in safety – not just physical safety but also emotional safety. We must create a culture where our employees do not feel their jobs are on the line all the time, and they will quickly become outdated, irrelevant and expendable.
Sadly, many businesses do not want to invest in human capital. They expect recruits to land running in their specific job roles, fully trained, qualified and experienced. They want the right to hire and fire workers, especially low-paid ones, with minimum cost to the business.
The country must move from accepting the status quo on workers’ welfare to a new social contract built on mutual respect and trust between employers and employees.