Author: SME Chamber

GRTU Director General and EESC employers' representative Vincent Farrugia has this week chaired the second EESC study group on the Commission Communication on Youth Opportunities Initiative, issued at the end of last year. Mr Farrugia argued that SMEs are the largest employers and within SMEs exists the capacity absorb the largest number of unemployed. They must however be supported, with access to finance, financial incentives and schemes for employment, in order to provide them with the capacity to employ.

The Youth Opportunities Initiative builds upon the EU 2020 flagship initiatives 'Youth on the Move' and 'New Skills for New Jobs', as well as on the June 2011 Council Conclusions on youth employment and the Council Recommendations on early school leavers. Although both education and employment policies are primarily the responsibility of Member States, the European Commission can make an important contribution. One of the key elements of the Youth Opportunities Initiative is that the European Commission will help Member States to use the European Social Fund (ESF) more efficiently, in particular knowing that 30 billion euro within the ESF is still uncommitted to projects.

Between 2008 and 2010 youth unemployment has increased by one million reaching the unacceptable level of more than 5 million unemployed young people. This means that on average one in five young people on the labour market cannot find a job and in certain Member States it is almost every second young person willing to work who faces this problem. The youth unemployment rate is twice as high as for the whole working population and nearly three times as high as the rate for the adult active population.

In most European countries there is an ageing society. Europe's development will not be sustainable if millions of young people are lost for society. Between now and 2020, it is estimated that there will be 73 million job openings due to retirement of the baby-boomer generation of workers. These will need to be filled with appropriately qualified new staff. If no action is taken to better integrate young people in the labour market, and especially the early school leavers, millions of them will risk facing persistent difficulties and marginalisation over time.

Vince Farrugia presented his comments as follows:

Support to entrepreneurship

Support to tackle skills mismatches

Support to companies to foster the recruitment of young people

• Financial incentives for micro-companies to hire young people
• Administrative and financial incentives to increase the number of apprenticeship places for young people and apprentices recruitment in micro-companies
• Specific support programme such as the "Apprenticeship and handicrafts trades"

Support to Member States to adapt education and training systems

• Introducing or extending alternating education and training systems such as apprenticeship and work-based systems all over Europe
• Creating partnerships between education and businesses for higher employability of youngsters
• Setting-up bridges between crafts businesses and higher education
• Providing second chance education for early schools dropouts
• Fostering initial and continuous Vocational Education and Training for a higher employability
• Supporting transnational learning mobility for young people in Vocational Education and Training including apprentices.

"GRTU Malta Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises will be taking legal action in the coming days if Government persists in denying our members their legitimate request to be exempt from Eco Contribution Payment on all Electrical and Electronic goods if they are members of an Authorised WEEE Scheme. Five years of waiting is far too long."

This was stated by GRTU Official Joe Attard during a packed meeting held for all producers currently registered with the Competent Authority as producers of such waste. After so many years Government still insists that it cannot do away with the current income of €8M currently being received through payment of Eco Contribution for placing such products on the market. The producers present were given a background of the discussions that took place in relation to the implementation this Legal Notice 63 of 2007, which obliges producers of EEE (Electrical and Electronic Equipment) to recover 4kg per capita through Schemes or through self compliance. So much time has passed that there has been a review of the Directive at European level and the WEEE recast now obliges a recovery of 65% of what is placed on the market, so from a target recovery of 1600 tons (for Malta), the producers now require a minimum recovery of 9000 tons.

The cardinal issue has always been the payment of Eco Contribution and Government's insistence that although there is a payment of Eco Contribution, producers also have to comply to Legal Notice 63 of 2007 through self compliance or through an Authorised Scheme, by also paying the Scheme to provide compliance.

GRTU has made its position very clear on this issue. Businesses are ready to pay once for their environmental obligations, and it stops there. Government at present is requesting a double payment, the payment of Eco Contribution and also providing the logistics for recovery, dismantling, treatment and final recycling of WEEE, through another financial contribution. This is not acceptable and will never be acceptable. We will stand our ground.

GRTU Official Joe Attard, explained that during a recent meeting with the Prime Minister, Dr Lawrence Gonzi and his special delegate Dr Simon Busutill, the subject was tabled for discussion and being a technical matter, the Prime Minister requested GRTU to write in detail to the same Prime Minister for related action to be taken. Until then one could see that there was some sort of a political will for a solution.

GRTU wrote to the Prime Minister as instructed, and accordingly the information was forwarded to the Ministry of Finance, Economy and Investment (MFIN) for a decision to be taken. During a meeting held between GRTU officials and MFIN, in the presence of Mr Peter Portelli, Permanenet Secretary OPM, and Dr Christopher Ciantar, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs, GRTU was advised that at present the Government cannot lose an income of €8M from Eco Contribution currently received from such goods, and as such there is no tangible way to implement exemptions from Eco Contribution so that businesses comply to their legal obligation through Schemes. These words were utterred despite the fact that during the same meeting, the Permanent Secretaries present brought to the attention of the Permanent Secretary MFIN, the fact that Malta is facing an imminent infringment notice from the European Community in respect to this European Directive.

GRTU will not take this any longer. We have stuck to the table of discussion for unending years. However since implementation of this Directive seems to be a forlorn wish, the matter was discussed by the National Executive Council of the GRTU and it was agreed that GRTU will take up the matter with the European Commission as a safeguard to protect enterprise owners from any negative impact of any infringment procedures that the Commission may take against the Maltese Authorities due to Malta's failure to meet its obligations under EU Directives, inspite of the Business Community efforts led by GRTU, to cause Government to establish the correct mechanisms that would make compliance possible.

On the local front GRTU will file a Judicial Protest in respect to the matter on behalf of its members and will await then to see whether there is the political will to solve this issue or whether this important environmental issue will only come second or third on the national agenda…

In the meantime GRTU advised its members and producers of WEEE present to send in their annual market placement as requested by MEPA, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority through on line registration until 1st June 2012, for basis year 2011. GRTU also advised its members present to copy to GRTU with the ‘acknowledgment' received from MEPA after the registration has been effected.

The employment status of a person who is nominally self-employed is to be presumed to be that of an employee, if a minimum of five of the following criteria are met.

(1) 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;

(2) 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;

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

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

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

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

(7) 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

(8) 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.

Statement by the employer

In situations where the employment status of a person is deemed to be one of employment, the employer shall be bound to give or send to the employee a letter of engagement or a signed statement, which shall include the information laid down in the Information to Employees Regulations.

Exemption

Notwithstanding the presence of five or more of the above criteria that would automatically establish an employment relationship, any person may before entering into such a relationship, submit a written request to the Director of Industrial and Employment Relations to exempt such a relationship from being considered to be an employment relationship. The Director may exempt in writing that relationship, if it is considered that there are particular grounds relating to that activity to exempt it from this requirement, including that the activity being carried out is an uncommon occurrence or of very short duration. Such exemption shall remain valid unless withdrawn by the Director.

Strong first-quarter growth in Germany but slump in Italy. – Germany's first-quarter growth was higher than predicted while other eurozone economies stagnated or shrank, according to figures released this morning.

Germany's economy grew 0.5% from the last quarter of 2011, five times as much as predicted by analysts. The growth was driven mainly by exports.

The eurozone economy as a whole stayed flat, avoiding recession.

But Italy's gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 0.8% in the first quarter – the country's biggest drop in three years and worse than expected. France's GDP stayed flat, while the Dutch economy was down 0.2%.

The GDP of the EU's 27 member states grew 0.1% in the first three months of this year.

Health claims on food labelling and in advertising, for example on the role of calcium and bone health or vitamin C and the immune system, have become vital marketing tools to attract consumers' attention. Therefore EU consumers expect accurate information on products they buy, in particular on the health claims the products may put forward.

Today, a list of 222 health claims has been approved by the Commission. This list is based on sound scientific advice, will be used throughout the EU and will also help to remove misleading claims from the market before the end of the year.

John Dalli, Commissioner in charge of Health and Consumer Policy, said: "Today's decision is the culmination of years of work and marks a major milestone in regulating health claims on food. The EU-wide list of permitted health claims will be available on-line and will allow consumers everywhere in the EU to make an informed choice. Non-scientifically backed claims will have to be removed from the market after a short transition period." The list also provides legal clarity to food manufacturers on the health claims they can or cannot make. The administrative burden will also be reduced, since all enforcement authorities will from now on be able to rely on one list of authorised health claims and their conditions of use to verify if a claim is misleading or not.

Commissioner Dalli added: "Some work remains to be done and the Commission – with the needed scientific background – will now focus on concluding its work by tackling those claims which are still under consideration."

Claims for which the authorisation process is complete will be listed in the Union Register of nutrition and health claims made on foods, as required by Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods. This Union Register is an interactive database and is on the Commission's website.

Food manufacturers will have a period of 6 months to adapt their practices to the new requirements. As from the beginning of December 2012 all claims that are not authorised and not on hold/under consideration shall be prohibited.

Background

This Commission Regulation implements Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods, in particular Article 13(3). Member States submitted lists of about 44,000 health claims in 2008, which were consolidated by the Commission into a list of some 4,600. By 2010 these claims were sent to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) which conducted a scientific assessment of whether the claims could be substantiated. EFSA finalised its main body of work for all health claims other than those on botanical substances in June 2011. Member States agreed to authorise the claims listed in the Annex to this Commission Regulation during the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health of 5 December 2011. Both the European Parliament and the Council considered this list under the scrutiny period, which ended with no objections on 27 April 2012.

The list adopted today by the European Commission contains 222 claims, representing nearly 500 entries from the consolidated list. More than 1600 of these entries will not be authorised. For the rest, the authorisation process is in the process of being finalised. It is the responsibility of the Member States' authorities to enforce the rules on health claims.

For more information on Health claims:

http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/labellingnutrition/claims/index_en.htm

For more information on the Register: http://ec.europa.eu/nuhclaims/

The age profile of the EU is expected to change dramatically in the coming decades, according to the EU's latest Ageing report that was published on 15 May. The EU population will in 2060 have slightly risen from 502 million of 2010 to around 517 million. And it will be much older. According to projections, by 2060 nearly one in three citizens will be aged 65 or over while the share of those aged 15-64 will decline from 67% to 56%.

As a consequence, the EU will move from having four people of working-age to each person aged over 65 years to about two people of working-age. The decline in the workforce will act as a drag on growth and per capita income, and will put pressure on public finances in the EU. However, the report shows a large diversity across EU Member States, depending notably on progress with pension reforms.

Following a very successful uptake on the Training Aid Framework (TAF) and the Employment Aid Programme (EAP) the Employment and Training Corporation would like to pre-announce the temporary suspension of these schemes as the budgets allocated for this project have now been committed.

However, the Corporation acknowledges the contribution of this scheme to employers to train their personnel and /or take on new employees and that a number of employers were in the process of submitting their applications. In view of this, acceptance of applications and issuing of acknowledgements for both schemes will continue to be received as per current practice by not later than Friday 8th June 2012 at 4:00pm.

The Corporation will also be undertaking an exercise to ensure that the funds committed by applicants will be actually disbursed. Employers who have grant agreements for training under the TAF scheme which was completed by end of March, 2012 are to submit their claims for reimbursement by 16th July, 2012 at 2:00pm. Employers whose EAP grant agreement end date was prior to end of March, 2012 are to submit their claims for reimbursement by 16th July, 2012 at 2:00pm.

Failure to submit the claims for reimbursement by this date will be considered as a withdrawal of the application from the employer's side and the funds allocated to the application in question will be revoked and re-allocated. This will enable the Corporation to free up funds to be allocated to other applicants.

The Employment Aid Programme is a European Social Fund co-funded programme which provides employment aid to employers in Malta and Gozo aimed at promoting the recruitment of disadvantaged and disabled persons. Since the launch of the programme 2800 persons have found employment through this scheme.

Through the Training Aid Framework, which is another European Social Fund co-funded programme, financial assistance is provided to those companies that invest in the training of their workforce. Through this programme a number of companies in the various sectors of the Maltese economy used this fund to train their workforce and more than 23,000 persons were trained.

Students who will be out on a period of Unpaid Work Placement, would have successfully completed their first year of the two-year programme of studies. The students would attain the so important opportunity to gain a real life experience whilst organisation taking part in such scheme will benefit from the services provided by same students – a win-win situation!

The courses the students are following include:

Diploma in Financial Services:

Students can be entrusted with any basic routines within the day-to-day Banking and Financial Services operations. They may be involved in projects being taken up in the area of Financial Services, as well as offered the opportunity to observe closely the day to day operations and happenings within this dynamic industry.

Certificate in Insurance:

Students can be entrusted with work related to day-to day office routines within an Insurance environment, with a possibility to observe real life situations as they occur within the office, as well as have the opportunity to carry out tasks which will bring to life, the theory they would have studied during their first year of the programme of studies.

Certificate in Marketing

Students can be entrusted with any task related to basic Marketing processes which will touch upon Advertising, PR, Market Research, and Selling & Sales Management. the content they would have studies during their first year of studies (as indicated above). Such may include tasks and jobs relating to

Extended Diploma in Business

Throughout the period of unpaid work placement, students following this programme of studies can be entrusted with any basic Administrative task and Office routines such as Research Assistant, HR Assistant, Production / Marketing Department Assistant etc

Diploma in Business

Students can be entrusted with any task related to basic Office routines in assisting various Business Functions, as well as opportunities related to Customer Care and Reception duties. Students may also be involved in basic office routines such as data inputting amongst others – ideally such tasks will be varied with other basic jobs which can be assigned to these students.

Higher National Diploma in Business

Students can be entrusted with any basic routines relating to Junior Management. Students may also be detailed to specific projects which may include Market Research and Analysis, General Research (incl EU related projects), HR / Marketing Plans, Supply Chain / Logistic Operations, Production Management related tasks, etc

On Wednesday 30^th May 2012 at 15.30 at the Institute of Business and Commerce Block A, an Information Meeting will be held for those interested in acquiring clarifications re the logistics of the actual work placement scheme. Those wishing to attend are kindly asked to send a reply email by not later than Tuesday 29^th May. For more information call on 2398 7600.

According to the spring forecast released on 11 May, real GDP is projected to stagnate this year in the EU and to contract slightly in the euro area. However, strong policy actions and major advancements in the EU institutional framework have brought about an easing of financial market tensions in the beginning of 2012 and a tentative stabilisation of confidence, expected to strengthen over the forecast horizon.

Together with an expected acceleration in global growth, a gradual recovery is forecast to start in the second half of the year and gather speed in 2013. The unemployment rate, which lags changes in economic activity, is expected to remain at 10.3% in the EU and at 11% in the euro area in 2012 and 2013.