The information in this article was gathered from a Malta Employers’ Association event about third country nationals back in October.
In the case of workers from India and its neighbouring countries, as well as some other third countries, we were informed that no central office exists to take care of visa applications. Furthermore, agencies in these countries must communicate with several contacts to finally get to the central government. This involves the payment of each contact for issuing the required documents. It is no exaggeration to say that, to reach Malta, applicants can end up paying around €5,000.
When it comes to third country nationals employed locally as drivers, for example, the situation regarding a driving licence for heavy goods vehicles is very difficult. I am not talking about Y number plates, where new restrictions have recently been applied. The process to eventually start work takes months, and these drivers must apply for a certificate of professional competence (CPC), which is a 65-hour course; 80 per cent is theory and 20 per cent is practical. This is quite an expensive course and the success rate is only 50 per cent. Part of this is due to the language barrier but the fact that even Maltese new drivers are getting the same results shows that it is not an easy course.
This is clogging up the system as Transport Malta has 12 assessors, and the waiting time for the next step ranges from four to six months. For a third country national driver to be on the road, he must be in possession of a CPC and his country’s driving licence or an international driving licence. This is for the first year, during which he has to apply for a local driving licence (B) but not before having driven for 185 days.
It is no exaggeration to say that, to reach Malta, applicants can end up paying around €5,000
Then, within a month, they can apply for licence (C), which permits them to drive heavy passenger or goods vehicles. The fact of the matter is that there is no one to do such work if we do not have third country nationals. And the perception of low wages for these nationals is wrong – most employers offer the same pay as the other Maltese employees doing the same kind of work. It is illegal to discriminate.
A lot of employers will lose their drivers if the present problems are not addressed. Companies are training and retraining third country nationals, making them more employable, while the Maltese are missing out on this training, and employers are missing out on investing in people long term.
Here are recommendations that could help improve the situation:
Transport Malta should extend the time of compliance from one year to two, since it cannot efficiently deliver the assessing due to the number of applicants.
Transport Malta should change the CPC and make it 50 per cent theory and 50 per cent practical. This was done in the UK when there was a high failure rate due to illiteracy or a language barrier.
There should be an induction course to introduce Malta to the newcomer, preparing them for life here. They need to be properly informed about employment duties and rights, our tax and NI system, health and safety standards to comply with and a briefing on our customs and traditions.
Our tax department should shift the employer’s responsibility for tax payments and refunds to the employees themselves or, at least, any communication about tax should be done in a short time and not years after, when the employee has already left the island.
Malta and the countries where the employees come from should work out a system like the one used many years ago where an employee moves to Malta with a written job guarantee by an employer in Malta, and all the checks and investigations are done before the person leaves their country.
Doris Sammut BonniciDoris Sammut Bonnici is joint managing director of Green Skip Services Ltd.