Maltese society has clearly become more liberal and progressive. In recent years, Malta has introduced legislation to stop discrimination based on sexual orientation and introduced IVF rights.
But while progress on these niche issues is most welcome, other very visible issues remain unaddressed. One such issue is modern slavery. It stares us in the face every day in the nation’s streets and construction sites.
Over the weekend, at least 300 Bolt couriers staged a desperate stoppage over declining pay, bonuses and work. Many of the country’s food couriers, at least those from outside the EU, earn their living through platform work.
This is defined as a business model that provides consumer services by facilitating exchanges between groups, usually consumers and producers. While this concept is potentially innovative in producing solutions in terms of labour, it is often abused.
Times of Malta has reported on food couriers in Malta who are struggling to survive. Couriers are not the only vulnerable groups that have become an integral part of the local labour market.
Third countries’ care workers, construction labourers, cleaners and domestic helpers are similarly at risk of exploitation. These people’s vulnerability does not feature sufficiently on the radars of social policy makers, trade unions and the main political parties.
Faced with limited access to educational and professional opportunities and other critical elements of human development, hundreds of thousands of non-EU workers use employment agencies to try and better their lot in life by working in countries like Malta.
The reality they face when they arrive here is often far from what they were promised. They are often marginalised and left with no choice but to comply with dangerous working conditions and underpayment. Some take on job-related debts, such as burdensome recruitment fees, and find themselves unable to pay that money back any time soon.
We consume the products of slavery every day. Indeed, totally globalised supply chains make it almost impossible to avoid the consumption of goods and services that are free from the fingerprints of slavery. But our moral sensibilities do not apply equally to all.
It is a form of cultural relativism: conditions we deem as totally unacceptable for Maltese workers are fine for those who come from poor countries.
In a 2019 TV debate, former prime minister Joseph Muscat brazenly argued that he would rather see foreigners than Maltese carry out certain non-skilled jobs, such as picking up rubbish or doing manual labour in the hot sun. Sadly, this mindset prevails in sections of Maltese society that seem to be insensitive to modern forms of bondage.
Looking from the outside, the large numbers of third-country workers that serve the community appear to have normal jobs. But many of these people are being enslaved and controlled.
Some are threatened and others forced into inescapable debt. Many have fallen into this oppressive trap simply because they were trying to escape poverty or insecurity, improve their lives and support their families.
It is time for our politicians, trade unions and societal leaders to address the scourge of modern slavery.
The business community also needs to rethink the deceptive business models based on social dumping and exploitation, operating on the margins of what legislation considers an ‘employment relationship’.
The rest of us, as consumers, must give more thought to the process by which the products and services that we purchase reach us. All of us – and not just employers and the government – have a duty of care towards vulnerable workers in the production chain.