Author: SME Chamber

The EESC Plenary on 21st March 2013 approved an Opinion
on the ‘Abuse of the status of self-employed'. Vince Farrugia as Malta
Employer's representative made a long list of amendments ensuring that the
Opinion reflects the objection of genuine self-employed against the abuse of
their status by two different groups:

1. The employers who continue to recruit workers
in precarious conditions to offer cut-price services against competitors who
abide by labour laws and respect the ILO resolution of the 15th June 2006 which
advises Governments to take action to suppress this abuse of the status of
self-employment.

2. Free riders who under the guise of
self-employed act in direct competition with genuine self-employed without
abiding to tax, standards and other licensing and wages regulations. These free
riders succeeding in eating away substantial ratio of markets at the expense of
the genuine self-employed who abide by all applicable laws.

Among the proposals adopted by the EESC in its important
Opinion is the amendment of Vincent Farrugia that states that when considering
the employment status of a person who is nominally self-employed and is prima
facie not considered as an employee, it can be presumed that there is an
employment relationship and that the person for whom the service is provided is
the employer if at least five of the following criteria are satisfied in
relation to the person performing the work:

(a) s/he depends on one single person for whom the
service is provided for at least 75% of his income over a period of one year;

s/he depends on
the person for whom the service is provided to determine what work is to be
done and where and how the assigned work is to be carried out;

(c) s/he performs the work using equipment, tools or
materials provided by the person for whom the service is provided;

(d) s/he is subject to a working time schedule or minimum
work periods established   by the person
for whom the service is provided;

(e)  s/he cannot sub-contract his work to other
individuals to substitute himself when carrying out work;

(f)  s/he is integrated in the structure of the
production process, the work organisation or the company's or other
organization's hierarchy;

(g) the person's activity is a core element in the
organization and pursuit of the objectives of the person for whom the service
is provided, and

(h)     s/he carries
out similar tasks to existing employees, or, in the case when work is
outsourced, he performs tasks similar to those formerly undertaken by
employees.

Experts of renowned organisations have joined forces
last August to address food safety challenges through the global integration of
food safety research, training and policies. 
The initiative, called Collab4Safety (www.collab4safety.eu), received
funding by the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Union.

As part of this work, a searchable database of food
safety actors working world wide was created. This platform aims to build a
community that can contribute to more sustainable international food safety
cooperation at a long term.

This database had over 200 registries from more than
60 countries in just a couple of weeks. The registration is free. In order to
search in the database, register: http://web.spi.pt/collab4safety/user/register

 The Institute of
Financial Services – Malta (ifs Malta) and Creditinfo are jointly offering a
course on how to develop and improve credit policy. Entitled "Developing an Effective Credit Control Unit"
(whilst avoiding a trip to the Coronary Care Unit), the course is aimed
at professionals and has been specifically designed to encapsulate the levels
of risk involved in providing credit and to establish a better understanding of
how this can be mitigated.

The objective of the
course is to enable participants to understand the risks involved in extending
credit terms, develop a strategy to mitigate credit risks, apply an assessment
on financial statements to assess credit worthiness, understand the risks
involved in international trade transactions and the role banks play and gain insight
on personal skills used for collections.

This training
programme is not only beneficial to the financial services sector but also to
key personnel within businesses who are involved in negotiating credit terms,
collection of debts, and risk assessment / credit scoring.

ifs members registered for the
CPD  may claim learning credits (Category
5) for attending this course. Members of the Malta Institute of Accountants
attending all sessions will be accredited with 12 hours of structured CPE
(incl. 9 hours and 3 hours for the attainment of Professional Development and
Core Competencies respectively).

For further details
and registration kindly contact CreditInfo Malta on telephone 21312344 or
email: .

The latest available Europe-wide testing programme of
pesticides in food has found that over 97% of samples contained residue levels
that fall within permissible limits, said the European Food Safety Authority
(EFSA). The EU Report on Pesticide Residues in Foods also assessed dietary
exposure and concluded the chemical residues on the foods analysed did not pose
a long-term risk to consumer health. The evaluation of short-term dietary
exposure excluded a risk to consumers from 99.6% of food samples. The full
report can be found: www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/1646.htm

Stop testing of cosmetics on animals and their commercialization. The
European Union, by Decree 1223/2009 in force since last March 11, has in fact
imposed a total ban on the sale of cosmetics developed through animal testing
in all Member States of the EU. The
ban however applies only to new products entering the market after 11^th
March 2013. Products already in circulation will remain unaffected.

The
European Union had already banned animal testing in 2004. In 2009 the EU had
also prohibited the marketing of cosmetics tested on animals, with the
exclusion howeverof substances consisting of individual ingredients tested on
animals. These now have also been banned.

According
to the European Health Commissioner Tonio Borg "This is a great
opportunity for Europe to set an example of responsible innovation in cosmetics
without any compromise on consumer safety." The
same Decree also provides that as from 11^th July, the manufacturers
of cosmetic products will be also obliged to provide more detailed information
on the expiry date of the product, a complete list of ingredients, the country
of origin and the presence of "nano" ingredients (ingredients that are
smaller than 100 micron).

Through
such provisions the European Union wants to set an example for the others
countries that still sell these products such as China, India and USA.

This
prohibition is in fact more of an ethical than a commercial turn, to promote
the welfare of animals.

However,
according to Cosmetics Europe, the company that represents the cosmetics
industry within the European market, worth 71 billion euros and 180,000
employees, this prohibition acts as an impediment on innovation.

According
to producers, another problem, , related to security of substances, is that at
the moment there are no alternative methods.

The
European Commission though reassures all that the search for alternative
methods will continue and specifically for this reason has already allocated
approximately € 238 million for the period between 2007 and 2011.

The aim of this seminar is to explain the practical
implications of the SEPA Regulation for businesses, thereby assisting
participants to assess their state of preparedness for migration to SEPA by 1
February 2014, and to guide businesses on the actions which need to be taken to
achieve such compliance within the stipulated timeframe.

Background Information

Following the introduction of euro notes and coin, the
EU banking industry, strongly supported by the European Commission and the
European Central Bank, has been working to develop harmonized schemes for
electronic payments in euro within the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). The
aim of the SEPA project is to improve the efficiency of cross-border payments
in euro, and turn existing fragmented national markets into a single
pan-European market, adhering to the same set of rules and standards for the
execution of credit transfers and direct debits.

In February 2012, the EU adopted Regulation 260/2012
(the SEPA end-date Regulation), establishing technical and business
requirements for credit transfers and direct debits in euro, and stipulating 1
February 2014 as the deadline for compliance with these provisions. This means
that as of that date, all existing national schemes for euro credit transfers
and direct debits must be replaced by SEPA-compliant schemes.

Topics on Agenda

The information session will cover the following
topics:

Introduction to SEPA, its
objectives and benefits

Impact of SEPA on
businesses

Progress achieved so far in
Malta

Preparing your business for
SEPA

Migration Migration from an
IT perspective

Venue:
Chamber of Engineers Premises, 127, Professional Centre, Sliema Road, Gzira

Date:
26th March, 2013 at 4pm       FREE OF
CHARGE!

The
European Union's construction sector faces a testing target. Under the EU Waste
Framework Directive (2008/98/EC), it must, by 2020, reuse or recycle at least
70% by weight of non-hazardous construction and demolition waste. In some countries, such as Belgium, Germany and the
Netherlands, says the Belgian sustainable development research institute VITO,
the target is already being exceeded. For the EU construction sector as a
whole, however, a 70% reuse and recycling rate is feasible but will "definitely
not be easy".

Fortunately, research is being done into the reuse and
recycling of construction and demolition waste, 380 million tons of which is
produced in the EU each year – more than 30% of total EU waste.

IRCOW, a project supported by the EU's Seventh
Framework Programme, is analysing through five case studies best practice in
management of construction and demolition waste. VITO is a partner in IRCOW
(Innovative Strategies for High-Grade Material Recovery from Construction and
Demolition Waste).

IRCOW started in January 2011, and will run until the
end of 2013. The case studies cover a wide range of situations commonly faced
by the construction industry.

So far, results have been promising. The case studies
in Bilbao and Poland have been completed.

In Bilbao, a building dating from the 1970s with a
concrete structure and a brick facade was cleared and demolished. Steel
reinforcing bars were separated from the waste concrete and bricks, which were
crushed, generating mounds of recycled aggregate.

The Polish case studied the onsite treatment of hazardous demolition
waste, in particular asbestos. The result is that asbestos is, in effect,
burned out of the waste, and the hazardous material is converted into a
non-hazardous material.

The Swedish case study has also been completed as far
as was possible. It was decided not to demolish the old school building for
economic reasons.

The
project has shown that cellular, or aerated concrete (commonly known as breeze
blocks, or Beton blocks) can be recycled. Previously, this was not recyclable
into concrete because it is lightweight and weakens recycled aggregates.

Although not finished, the IRCOW project has shown so
far that there is substantial scope either for the increased reuse of
construction waste (for example, doors and windows), or for its recycling into
low-grade applications, such as aggregates for building foundations and roads.

The main environmental benefits are avoiding the use
of raw materials, and avoidance of waste being sent to landfill. Reuse and
recycling of construction waste can also be cost effective, especially where
there is infrastructure to manage the waste.

The main obstacles to greater reuse and recycling of
construction waste, according to IRCOW, are the technically acceptable use of
recycled materials for higher-grade applications, and trust in products made
from recycled materials.

To ensure that recycled products can be trusted,
certification schemes might be needed, or recycled materials, such as
aggregates in concrete, will need to be incorporated into existing standards.

Victoria Primary schoolchildren were recently
introduced to the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle campaign organised by Green MT. Green MT is visiting various primary and secondary
schools all over Malta and Gozo to raise awareness about the need to reuse,
reduce and recycle.

Its representatives explained the reasons behind the
campaign to the school-children in order to preserve the environment.

The campaign includes a competition among schools,
whereby children are being encouraged to bring plastic and paper to be
recycled.

The school collecting the largest amount of plastic
and paper per capita in a month's time will win the award.

As part of the green campaign, Daniel Chircop of Zoo
and singer Christina Casolani hosted the programme, which consists of
storytelling and a quiz related to the environment and everything the children
need to know about recycling.