Nine Months Later, Government Has Done Nothing To Address Platform Workers’ Conditions, PN Says
Despite promising to look into the working conditions of platform workers in Malta over nine months ago, the government has done nothing, the Nationalist Party claimed this morning.
In a statement, the PN accused the government of taking the country’s workers for a ride when it pledged to introduce a basic living wage as well as boost workers’ rights in various segments of the economy.
The PN referred to an interview OPM Minister Carmelo Abela sat for with the Malta Independent in which he said that the report on a potential basic living wage was only for internal government use.
The party said the government’s refusal to publish the report was a testament to the manner in which it treated the country’s workers.
“After nine years of promising to introduce a basic living wage, it didn’t even have the decency to publish the report it commissioned on one of its main pledges,” Azzopardi said.
It challenged the government to publish the report out of respect to the thousands of workers employed under precarious conditions without any basic employment rights.
Rather than address their situation the government was standing idly by, Azzopardi said.
“It must be noted that this is the same Minister Carmelo Abela who nine months ago promised a report to study the conditions of platform workers but did nothing. This is the same Minister Carmelo Abela who exactly a year ago officially promised to revise wage regulation orders that regulate workers’ benefits and wages,” Azzopardi said.
In January, it was reported that the government was discussing the legal framework regulating platform workers after concerns were raised about working conditions being offered to food delivery couriers on the island.
An investigation had been launched by the Department of Industrial and Employment Relations into the food courier business, with OPM Minister Carmelo Abela telling Parliament in July that the investigation was still ongoing.
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