The community worker scheme, which helps unemployed people gain work experience and improve their chances of finding a job, has been extended.
The scheme originally launched in 2009 and reformed in 2016, is also meant to provide local councils, NGOs and other entities with workers for routine operations such as cleaning and maintenance of road signs.
Last year Times of Malta reported that local councils across Gozo had flagged a rise in the incidence of skiving by people enrolled in this scheme. Many workers were not found on-site and while others did carry out the work assigned to them, they would fit in private jobs during working hours, such as at people’s houses.
The management of the government initiative was originally within the remit of Jobsplus and was later conceded to the General Workers' Union.
As of this year, the extended scheme will be overseen by the local government.
Addressing a press conference about the scheme’s extension, president of the local councils’ association Mario Fava said that the scheme's current 840 participants earnt €1 million in wages between them.
Minister for local government Jose’ Herrera meanwhile noted that the scheme was being extended to bolster local councils’ human resources as part of a 10-year plan to improve coordination between local, regional and central authorities.
It is not yet clear how long the concession is set to be extended for, and efforts to contact a spokesperson for the ministry went unanswered.
Does the scheme work?
According to a National Audit Office (NAO) report that sought to analyse the scheme's achievement, the initiative had cost a total of €12.8 million in 2018.
The report had revealed that by the end of September of that year, 78 per cent out of a total of 839 participants, or 658 people, had been retained from previous schemes.
The NAO had expressed concern that the scheme's intent to facilitate job-hunting had instead become permanent employment.
The report also flags issues related to lack of comprehensive training, opaque employment terms for people simply listed as ‘additional resources’ and the failure of Jobsplus to “perform more in-depth reviews of financial and operational reports".
During Friday's Local Government director-general Natalino Attard said that according to a 2019 government study, 31 localities participating in the scheme had performed well, while another 37 had produced an average or below-average performance.