Turkish construction workers, some of whom haven’t been paid for five months, are seeking legal advice with the aid of Moviment Graffitti.

“It’s very difficult for us to help, we are trying to seek legal advice. There are lawyers working pro bono for them,” said activist Andre Callus.

Last week, Fortina ended its relationship with TACA Construction following a strike by its construction workers who hadn’t been paid, some for up to five months for their work carried out on the Sliema construction site.

Work has stopped at the Fortina site and the workers remain in the dark on whether they’ll get paid for their work.

“They were receiving irregular payments all the time, sometimes they weren’t paid for a few months. They are in limbo; they have no idea what will happen to them at this point,” continued Callus.

Moviment Graffitti met with the construction workers at their hotel in Gżira yesterday to get a better understanding of their current situation with the help of an interpreter.

“They don’t speak English, they don’t know about employment laws about Malta. They told us that no one ever spoke to them, they are left on their own in this situation.”

“The situation is a bit late now, Fortina cannot just wash its hands. Taca is the employer, not Fortina, but they were working on their [Fortina’s] site. They have a degree of responsibility in all of this.”

The issue raises questions about the irregularity of employment in Malta; according to workers on the site only one inspection had been carried out by the Department Of Industrial And Employment Relations.

Left in the dark, the workers now face the possibility of going back to Turkey or being stuck in Malta. However, their main concern is getting paid for working 11 hours a day, six days a week for months on end.

“Their biggest issue is not that they are stuck or that they might have to go back to Turkey, it’s that they won’t get paid.”

“We don’t care about the fact that they are foreign workers, we care for social justice and workers’ rights. There was an injustice here and we are going to fight it the same way we would fight any other social injustice in Malta,” ended Callus.

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