Food delivery couriers and other digital platform workers will be guaranteed a fixed wage, receive statutory bonuses and get paid for overtime and sick leave under proposed new laws.

First announced by Prime Minister Robert Abela earlier this month, the revamped legislative framework for such workers was presented in greater detail by junior minister Andy Ellul on Friday.

The new laws seek to establish clear regulations for recruitment agencies and digital platforms to abide by when hiring workers. Currently, such work falls in a legal grey area.

The government proposals come as the European Commission works to introduce an EU-wide directive that would force member states like Malta to introduce such rights for platform workers.

Unveiled last December, the EU’s Platform Work Directive would give such workers the right to a minimum wage, paid leave, health and sickness protection as well as access to contributory old-age pensions, among other things.

The draft laws that local MPs will be asked to vote on reflect these EU-wide plans.  

A 2021 investigation by the Department of Industrial Relations had concluded that platform workers were forced to work in conditions that are technically unlawful, with no provisions for sick leave, overtime or vacation leave. In many cases, workers had money deducted from their first paycheques to pay for work clothes or equipment, the DIER found.

Food delivery and ride-sharing services have mushroomed in the past few years, with the vast majority of their public-facing workers being foreign.

Andy Ellul announces the new legislative plans. Photo: DOI/Jeremy Wonnacott

The vast majority, however, are not employed directly by those platforms. Rather, they are hired by recruitment agencies that handle their immigration paperwork, with those agencies then contracting them out to the platforms.

Times of Malta had reported how, in some cases, workers were lured to Malta with promises of jobs paying decent wages, only to then find significantly worse conditions – and pay – once they arrived in the country.

Having already spent thousands of euro in application fees and flight tickets, and often locked into an employment contract, they are then unable to return home before they have paid off their debts.

In some cases, recruitment firms have even sued workers who quit, demanding thousands for breach of contract.   

The new set of laws that the government intends to introduce would require employers to provide such workers with a clear employment contract and pay them in much the same way as a standard employee is paid.

That means workers would receive statutory bonuses, get paid for overtime and sick days, and receive double pay on rest days.

Employers will also be forbidden from charging workers for work-related items, such as clothes or equipment.

The proposed laws also place more stringent reporting obligations on digital platforms and recruitment agencies.

Zero-hour contracts, which allow employers to sack workers without any notice, will be banned except when the worker is a full-time student or workers are required to be on call.

Algorithms used to assign work must be passed on to the DIER, as must information about workers engaged through agencies and their working hours.

Probation periods cannot be any longer than six months, with some exceptions, and work training must be offered for free.

Workers will also be permitted to take on other jobs on the side, if they wish to do so.

Employers will be given a three-month grace period from when the laws are passed to adopt the new standards.  

Junior Minister Andy Ellul said the proposed new laws had been discussed “at length” with social partners.

The legislation would give platform workers “peace of mind,” he said.

“These laws send a clear message: that workers are and will continue to be a priority for this goverrnment,” he said.