Can Robert Abela Be Clear On Which Foreign Workers He Views As Unessential?
If Robert Abela is to be believed, the government will soon embark on a process to weed out jobs that are “unessential” to the Maltese economy.
“I don’t want an economy that simply creates as many jobs as possible, even if they are low-skilled. I want an economy that creates the best kinds of jobs and offers more opportunities to trained workers,” he said.
“We must be ambitious. When it comes to sectors that burden the infrastructure without any corresponding strong added economic value, the decision will be that these workers cannot enter Malta anymore.”
What exactly does he mean though and what are the implications? How is the term ‘strong economic value’ even being defined? Foreign workers must all pay taxes, they all need a place to stay, and they all contribute to the local economy in their everyday lives.
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But Abela specifically used the word ‘strong’, which implies that he only wants to accept foreign workers who earn more money than a specific, yet undefined, cut-off point. Basically, if you want to come to Malta, you have to be well-off.
That might sound great as a political talking point, but these sorts of arguments have a habit of hitting a brick wall when the following question is posed – “What will happen to all those modest jobs that are currently filled by foreign workers?”
The sticking point is that all foreign workers are providing some kind of service that there is a demand for.
Foreign healthcare workers only have a job because there is a lack of Maltese staff (in no small part because many move overseas), foreign waiters and kitchen staff only have a job because people are dining at their restaurants, foreign construction workers only have a job because Maltese people are building properties, and foreign food delivery drivers only have a job because thousands of people enjoy the comfort of having food delivered to their front door.
The moment this demand evaporates, they will have to find a new job, but the government shouldn’t force people to change their demands by introducing restrictive new laws.
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But what about the salaries? Is it fair that Maltese workers are being forced to compete with foreigners who accept lower salaries because they are used to lower standards of living? There is something inherently vicious in this concept, but businesses also have to deal with several costs, such as high rent, that are unseen to the general public.
If the government were to ban certain businesses from hiring foreign workers, many of them will probably be forced to raise their prices or shut down entirely. Needless to say, smaller businesses are likely to be the ones that will suffer most.
The government should be proactive, not restrictive – if it wants to encourage more businesses to hire Maltese workers, it should, for example, offer them strong bonuses to do so.
However, it would be an extremely dangerous move if it had to start tampering with the free market in what seems to be a knee-jerk reaction to complaints he received after the election. If the Prime Minister can just decide one fine day that certain jobs are non-essential, what will stop him from doing the same in the future with other jobs?
As for the vague promise of AI and automated jobs, there needs to be a serious national discussion about this and the potential implications. I find it bizarre that the Prime Minister keeps calling for a national discussion about issues like euthanasia and abortion but then seems ready to take an executive decision on something so drastic as automated jobs.
The main problem is that the PL government put too much focus into growing the economy and hardly enough on upgrading the infrastructure. But this is the government’s fault, not that of workers providing a service.
The Prime Minister owes it to the nation to be clear on which jobs he views as unessential and what the implications will be on their current employers and people currently using their services.
People shouldn’t be forced to lower their standards and expectations to compensate for the government’s own failures.
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