Author: SME Chamber

According to
the National Statistics Office, during the first quarter of 2013, 70.3 per cent
of individuals aged between 16 and 74 used computers, while 68.9 per cent used
the Internet. Furthermore, 62.4 per cent also made use of a mobile internet
connection while away from home.

E-Commerce
activities were estimated at 66.3 per cent, equivalent to an increase of 5.6
percentage points over 2012. Clothing and sports goods were the mostly acquired
items over the Internet (59.7 per cent). These were followed by shares for
purchases of reading material and holiday accommodation at 29.8 and 29.1 per
cent respectively.

The survey showed that 91.7
per cent of people who used the Internet at least once in their life know how
to use a search engine. On the other hand, only 10.6 per cent of respondents
said they knew how to create a web page. This survey also provided information
on perceived e-skills of individuals, showing that 90.6 per cent of individuals
believed they were able to communicate over the Internet, while 75.1 per cent
felt capable to protect personal data.

These have been
turbulent times for the European Union with the rise in unemployment and the
increasing gap between the Chinese and European economies. Euroscepticism has
risen in most EU Member States, with the Greeks and Spanish surpassing the UK's
rate of Euroscepticism (Eurobarometer 2012).

The fact
that these problems still continue to persist today only points out the
importance of active citizenship and involvement in EU initiatives. The
European Parliament is of course a vital EU institution as it represents each
and every EU citizen and allows MEPs to convey national and supranational
issues to European leaders. Take, for instance, the recent Citizenship debate
in which MEPs David Casa and Roberta Metsola made their distaste of the
citizenship scheme clear, whilst Maltese MEPs from the S&D EP Group
defended the scheme. Thus, whether you are in favour or against particular issues,
your opinion is being voiced through these MEPs.

Recent
episodes in Syria, Libya, Turkey, Egypt and Ukraine have shown that citizens
must speak up sooner rather than later. Jamaican civil rights activist Marcus
Garvey once said that "a people without the knowledge of their past history,
origin and culture is like a tree without roots." One must not forget the
hardship that Europe had constantly suffered, especially during the Second
World War. It was this exact hardship that motivated the creation of the European
Coal and Steel Community, which came to force in 1952. The events of extremists
coming to power should be avoided at all costs. Today the EU still continues to
fly the flag of peace as more countries are working towards becoming Member
States, despite the ongoing crisis. Therefore, something is definitely being
done right. Furthermore, whilst the past is significant, the future is full of
possibilities. It is youth that drives the future, with its motivation,
optimism and excitement. Therefore it is essential that young European voters
make an informed choice in the upcoming European Parliamentary elections.

Despite
the consistent decrease in turnout in the MEP elections, Malta's voting turnout
has suffered a less dramatic fall – from 82.39% in 2004 to 78.79% in 2009. This
could mirror the rise in Euroscepticism and the unfortunate reality that when
things appear to be going badly, many citizens turn their backs on the European
project. It should be reiterated that this should actually motivate citizens to
make their voices heard now and not in some distant, unknown future. Whatever
your political stance, these upcoming elections hand you the opportunity to act
and make a difference to the Union and influence what it stands for.

EU Directive 92/85/EEC safeguards the rights of workers who are pregnant or have recently given
birth as well as women who are breastfeeding. Moreover, the Directive covers
maternity leave and discrimination in the workplace. EU Member States are
required to abide by a number of rules, namely:

–    To
ensure that pregnant women are not obligated to carry out night work; subject
to the submission of a medical certificate, this also applies to women who had
very recently given birth. In such cases, women should either be transferred to
work during the daytime or be excused from work.

–    Maternity
leave must last for an uninterrupted period of minimum 14 weeks before and/or
after delivery. Additionally, maternity leave must be granted for at least two
weeks before delivery.

–    Pregnant
workers are allowed to take leave from work in order to attend antenatal
examinations during working hours without loss of pay.

–    Employers
cannot dismiss pregnant workers due to their condition from the beginning of
their pregnancy till the completion of their maternity leave. Pregnant workers
are protected from the ramifications of unlawful dismissal and thus employers
are required to provide appropriate reasons in writing if they feel a dismissal
is absolutely necessary.

To ensure that
workers' employment rights are safeguarded. This involves employment contracts,
and particularly the maintenance of payment and entitlement to proper
allowance.In Malta the law goes further whereby an extra 4 weeks are being
awarded. Therefore a pregnant employee may apply for maternity leave for an
uninterrupted period of eighteen weeks which is availed of as to (a) six weeks
of the maternity leave entitlement to be taken compulsorily immediately after
the date of birth; (b) four weeks of maternity leave to be availed of
immediately before the expected date of birth, unless agreed otherwise between
the employer and the employee. While the 14 weeks required by the Directive are
covered by the employer, the additional 4 weeks are covered by the Government.

This Directive
is also an initiative that encourages further gender equality at the workplace.
In a 2009 Commission report on equality between men and women [COM(2009) 77
final], it was highlighted that too many women were employed in part-time jobs,
and although 58.9% of qualifications in the EU are obtained by women, these
qualifications do not generally translate into high enough career paths. The
report also conveys the fact that the sharing of family responsibilities
remains unequal, with employment rate of women with children falling by 12.4
percentage points whilst in the same situation that of men increases by 7.3
points. Other initiatives have been made; for instance, the EU-funded Nistá – Sharing
Work-Life Responsibilities Campaign in Malta which promotes a balance between
work and family life.

EU Directive 2010/18/EU formulates the minimum requirements on parental leave and time off from
work. Through this Directive, workers are permitted parental leave on the birth
or adoption of a child. Parental leave is the right of workers of both sexes to
be granted unpaid parental leave so as to take care of a child. Maltese law
does not cater specifically for paternity leave, however in terms of the
Parental Leave Regulations  and the
Minimum Special Leave Entitlement Regulations fathers are entitled to 1 paid
day of birth leave and parental unpaid leave of up to 4 months (availed of in
periods of one month each) until the child has attained the age of 8
yearsPublic officers are granted a maximum of one year unpaid parental leave
per child.. This Directive applies to all workers – both men and women – and at
least one of the four months of parental leave that are granted cannot be
transferred from the father to the mother, or vice-versa. Upon the completion
of the duration of parental leave, workers must have the right to resume work
in the same job, or an equivalent occupation. For a limited period, these
workers also have the right to request a change in their working hours.

Workers that
want to take maternity leave or parental leave are required to notify the
employer in advance. The period of notice depends on the Member State, where
the interests of both employers and workers must be protected. In the case of
Malta, employees who apply for maternity leave must notify the employer at
least four weeks before the maternity leave commences.

Back in 2010,
the European Parliament had voted on the European Commission's 2008 proposal to
reform the 1992 Maternity Leave Directive, where the Commission made a proposal
for an increase in the minimum  period of
maternity leave from 14 to 18 weeks with a full payment of womens' salary
during this period. However, the European Parliament had wanted to provide
women with a minimum of 20 weeks maternity leave with full pay whilst
introducing two weeks of paternity leave (also with full pay). Of course, it is
worth pointing out that the European Commission would represent the interests
of all 28 Member States, while the European Parliament represents the European
citizens residing in these Member States. Negotiations are still underway, with
the Council and European Parliament disagreeing on the reform, however the
European Parliament has since appeared willing to make a compromise and depart
somewhat from its ambitious demands. The European Parliament's rapporteur on
this Directive, MEP Edite Estrela, has made claims that society would
definitely benefit from an improved maternity leave without any negative
consequences on the economy.

Emerging
reproductive technologies are paving the way towards new conceptions of
"family", and this also has particular implications on who is entitled to
certain benefits. Interesting developments have been occurring in the EU where,
in September 2013, a British woman who had a baby through a surrogate mother
was deemed by the European Court of Justice to be entitled to be paid maternity
leave. Such a legal opinion could allow other parents around the UK and the EU
to attain similar benefits. Advocate General Juliane Kokott said that even if
the child is not breastfed by the legal guardian, the legal mother still "has
the right to receive maternity leave provided for under EU law after the birth
of the child in any event where she takes the child into her care following
birth." Fascinatingly, she also states that if the woman who gives birth to the
child wishes to also take maternity leave, that leave must be subtracted from
the maternity leave taken by the mother who is now the legal guardian.

MEUSAC flimkien mal-Uffiċċju
għall-Informazzjoni tal-Parlament Ewropew f'Malta qiegħed jorganizza
diskussjoni bl-isem "L-Ewropa xi tfisser għall-bdiewa u għar-raħħala? Kif
jista' MEP jagħmel differenza?"

L-attività
ser issir fl-Istitut tal-Agribusiness tal-MCAST,
Triq Ħal-Luqa, Qormi fit-18 ta' Marzu 2014, fl-10:00am.

F'din
l-attività marbuta mal-elezzjonijiet Ewropej, il-bdiewa u r-raħħala se
jiltaqgħu mal-kandidati li se jikkontestaw għall-elezzjonijiet tal-Parlament
Ewropew. Huma se jkollhom l-opportunità li jiddiskutu mal-kandidati
prijoritajiet marbuta mal-qasam agrikolu li jistgħu jiġu ndirizzati minn ġewwa
l-Parlament Ewropew.

Il-programm u
d-direzzjonijiet lejn il-post jinsabu mehmuża ma' din l-email. Għal dakinhar,
il-parking taċ-Ċentru tal-Għammieri biswit l-Istitut tal-MCAST se joffri
parkeġġ b'xejn għal dawk li jattendu d-diskussjoni.

Kull min jixtieq jattendi jista'
jibbukkja post sat-Tnejn 17 ta' Marzu 2014, fl-12:00, billi jibgħat email lil .

As
International Women's Day approaches, European Commission Vice-President Neelie
Kroes called all women – and men – in the digital sector to join her campaign
to promote careers for women in tech by making a short video about life in the
digital sector and sharing it on the "Every Girl Digital" Facebook
page.

Facts
about women in the digital economy:

– Only 9
in 100 European app developers are female.

– Only
19% of ICT managers are women (45% women in other service sectors)

– Only
19% of ICT entrepreneurs are women (54% women in other service sectors) Less
than 30% of the ICT workforce is female

– Number
of female computing graduate is dropping (3% of female graduates compared to
10% of male graduates)

The aim of this
public consultation is to seek the opinions of the general public and all
stakeholders on the issues related to energy efficiency policies and measures
for 2020 and 2030.  Particularly, the
replies submitted to this consultation will provide an important input to the
review of progress towards the 2020 energy efficiency target under Article 3(2)
of the Energy Efficiency Directive 2012/27/EU.

They will also be taken into
consideration for the follow-up of the Communication "A policy framework for
climate and energy in the period from 2020 to 2030" to establish the exact
ambition of future energy savings policy and the measures necessary to deliver
it.

You are invited to reply to
this public consultation by answering the online questionnaire by 28/04/2014
which is available at: http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/forms/dispatch?form=2014eed

Last week GRTU
Council Member Noel Gauci met with Hon Stefan Buontempo, Parliamentary
Secretary for Research, Innovation, Youth and Sport, to discuss ways to improve
Malta's situation with Research & Innovation (R&I) and results achieved
thereof.

It was discussed that it is imperative for entrepreneurs to be
actively involved in the quest to facilitate the commercialisation of
successful research projects. Whether these entrepreneurs have a degree or not
should not make a difference, but one should rather pay attention to their
ability and expertise in research, innovation, development and
commercialisation.

GRTU has
proposed that entrepreneurs would be involved more, for instance GRTU is under
the impression that the MCST board is composed of an absolute majority of
academics. R&I is too often associated solely with academia, although
lately this perception is starting to change and we need to do much more to
eradicate the misconception. GRTU suggested that for R&I commercialisation to
take-off, the MCST board should be broadened to include enterprise
representatives, including GRTU as the national representative of SMEs and of
specific sectors such as the renewable energy industry.

Mr Gauci
also suggested the organization of regular information sessions though which
researchers would have the opportunity to present their project to
entrepreneurs and entice them to participate and collaborate.

GRTU
said it looked forward to a long and healthy relationship with the
Parliamentary Secretary in this regard.

GRTU has this
week attended as member of the Enterprise Consultative Council and contributed
to the discussion of on Female Entrepreneurship.

Mrs Michelle
Muscat, spouse of the Prime Minister of Malta, said that that we need to do
more in supporting females to remain in employment and venture into
entrepreneurship as we still have a very large number of females that vanish
for a certain period to raise their children and take care of their family.
This not only requires support for Government through childcare facilities and
tax incentives but requires a change in mentality. She continued saying that
women need to be role models for children and society they should be seen to contribute
to the economy and be successful not only in the traditional roles they are
associated with Government is in fact now looking at ways of expanding the  role of women.

Minister Chris
Cardona said that it is not about men and women, it is about utilizing the
resources of our country to their full potential. Women are a valuable
resource.  He said that more effort needs
to be done to push female entrepreneurship and he said that success is not
measured by the amount of women on boards only but by how able are we to build
a platform whereby women can set up a business. He also said that currently
only 19% of children attend child care, which is amongst the lowest in the EU,
and Government is seeking to double this by the next year.

The Minister
said that there are many initiatives in place and new ones starting amongst
which childcare, maternity leave and the link between education and industry.
Dr Cardona said he himself visited Sweden to learn about their golden rules on
female entrepreneurship. He also said that the Governments wants more female
entrepreneur ambassadors and he that he was committed to make this Government
the most feminist Government in Malta's history.

The National
Statistics Office contributed to the session by giving a number of figures.
Statistics show that the highest percentage of women in education are those of
the youngest age or mature students and females are most common in education,
health and law. In addition there are more female graduates. Women
entrepreneurs are more common in wholesale and retail as well as other
services, such as hairdressing.

While the
average working time for males in full time per week is 42 hours the average
working time for females is 39 hours. Unemployment rate as a percentage is
higher in females even though women are studying more. When it comes to the
level of births in 1980 there were 5,600 births and in 2012 this stood at
3,838. Births are most common amongst females aged between 30 and 34 followed
by those aged between 25 and 29. At the same time the fertility rate is going
down as females are having children at a later age. When it comes to childcare
it is more common in the informal setting through the family and neighbours.

Equality was
also a topic addressed and it was emphasized that during interviews and so on
employers cannot ask about the family arrangements of an individual. It was
specified that equality is not just in gender. There is a quality mark being
administered by the NCPE which is accessible even to SMEs and is tailor made
according to the enterprise's needs.

GRTU welcomed
the Minister's comments saying that our success should not just be measured by
the number of females on the board. We emphasized that it is important to give
females opportunities but it is also important to help females gain confidence
in themselves, change the mindset of people and support females with family
friendly measures which are the main reasons why women today are not given the
opportunities.

GRTU and Green
MT have last Thursday held a joint session on the Waste of Electrical and
Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive at the GRTU premises for members that
would be affected by developments in this regard. GRTU's Deputy President
Philip Fenech welcomed those present and Joseph Attard CEO of Green MT gave a
comprehensive presentation.

The aim
of the meeting was to update producers on the current policy in respect to WEEE
arising out of the National Waste Management Plan final policy document
2014-2020. This policy document provides an outline of the current
recommendations made by Government in order to put in place the actual
implementation of the WEEE Directive in Malta.

Whilst
the policy document provides a number of changes and scenarios, the major stumbling
block continues to be the payment of eco-contribution. In addition the document
outlines the provision of a bank guarantee to cover the waste management of
EEE. Whilst some form of guarantee would be a requisite it is definitely a
stumbling block to outline that self-compliant 
producers or producers being part of a scheme need to provide a full
financial guarantee for managing this waste stream. In addition the document
does not address the anomaly of the last 6 years, where producers were paying
eco-contribution and taking no further action to collect or recover their
market placed EEE. It was furthermore noted that through the recast of the WEEE
Directive, producers present for the meeting were told that the increase in
collection and recovery is minimally now fourfold of what the Directives
stipulated in 2007. They were also told that the recovery needs to reach 65% of
market placement by 2021.

GRTU has
always insisted that a one size fits all approach to these Directives for all
Member States leaves much to be desired and as such Government should try to
offset these heavy requirements by using a lenient approach towards both
schemes or self-compliant producers.

Members
present were also told that there will be more monitoring and enforcement in
relation to this legislation. The producers present were advised that GRTU and
Green MT will be represented on the waste management stakeholders group being
set up by the Ministry for Sustainable Development, the Environmental and Climate
Change to monitor and implement this policy. In addition it was agreed that a
sartorial committee is set up to include representatives for GRTU, Green MT,
prospective producer members and WEEE treatment facility operators. This
sectorial committee would be responsible to take on discussions with Government
in relation to WEEE issues and finalize the way forward for the implementation
of this particular waste stream.

It was
concluded that more frequent meetings will start being held in this regard.