113 Employers To Be Charged With Engaging Unlicensed Foreigners, Finance Minister Reveals
The police will be charging 113 employers in court after they were found to be employing unlicensed foreign workers, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana revealed in Parliament yesterday.
The minister was responding to a question from Nationalist MP Ivan Bartolo, who asked the minister what action would be taken against 2,308 foreign workers found to be working in Malta without the necessary documentation during 2020.
The minister pointed out that the provisions of Malta’s employment law did not empower authorities to take action against workers, only employers.
In this regard, Caruana said that the unlicensed workers had been employed by 255 different employers.
He said that 130 had regularised their position, as outlined in the law. They accounted for 318 of 2020’s unlicensed workers.
A further 12 employers have been charged in court, while the remaining 113 will be charged in court in the future. The minister did not specify when this would happen.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Malta has been clamping down on undocumented workers, in light of the economy’s contraction, as well as to ensure that government social services aren’t overburdened by undocumented workers.
A number of foreign workers also opted to leave Malta because of the uncertainty brought about by the pandemic, leaving many sectors, most notably, restaurants and catering establishments, unable to find the necessary staff for the summer season.
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