The General Workers Union on Tuesday welcomed a radical legal change in the laws for temporary employment and recruitment agencies, currently being debated in the House of Representatives.
GWU Secretary General Josef Bugeja said the trade union had long been insisting on such requirements for contractors that outsource employees to businesses, and welcomed the new legislation, which he said is expected to reduce the abuse of migrant workers, expected to enter into force in 2024.
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“We hope that, through this legislation, the exploitation of workers, especially foreign nationals, will stop. We do need foreign workers that contribute to our economic growth, but nobody can take advantage of the system unfairly, to the detriment of these workers,” Bugeja said.
Bugeja said that many migrant workers had ended up in abusive employment situations. “It is even affecting Maltese workers who end up being employed by these agencies, rather than by a company directly, and then exploited by such agencies. These workers end up having no choice but to be systematically exploited, while other colleagues employed directly by a company are entitled to different rights and conditions,” Bugeja added.
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