Category: Archive – 2013

We have been for years hearing
about the issue of skills mismatch, which is indeed a real concern and has
proved to be a challenge that has limited the advancement of our enterprises
and that of our workers.

Skills mismatch is the
situation where enterprises do not find individuals with the right skills to
employ. This is mainly the result of lack of communication between the world of
education and the world of work. We sometimes take this relationship for
granted however a conscious effort has to be made to bring the two worlds
closer together.

There are a number of
options available to tackle the issue and it is good news that Government is
looking into the best options with the collaboration of social partners. A lot
of background work is currently being undertaken in this respect. One issue the
Government and employers representatives are looking into is the establishment
of skills councils.

Skills Councils are
independent, employer-led organizations that are committed to working in
partnership to create the conditions for increased employer investment in
skills which will drive enterprise and create jobs and sustainable economic
growth. Their remit is also to produce high quality information on emerging
demands for skills in the labour market, identify skills gaps develop
occupational standards and qualifications, career awareness materials and help
teachers and trainers in their guidance of students.

We share the belief that
the sectoral approach is the most effective way to do this. Through their
sectoral reach, Sectoral Skills Councils are ideally placed to articulate the
voice of employers on skills; to develop innovative skills solutions and to
galvanise employer ambition and investment in skills and job creation. In doing
so, they are key strategic partners in creating the conditions for increased
investment in skills.

GRTU following
consultation with members has already identified specific sectors where skills
councils are required these include commerce, the green economy, crafts,
laundry and dry cleaning, hairdressing, meat processing, printing and
strategically important economic sectors.

Research on this subject
is currently being undertaken. Anyone interested in having their sector
included or having ideas in this regard should contact GRTU.

Packaging and Packaging Waste
Compliance leaves much to be desired. Today over 2600 Produces are financial
contributors to the existing two Authorised schemes.
In 2010, 766 producers
claimed to be self-complaint to the legislation. When the competent Authority
requested proof it become known, and only one 7th March 2013 at 5.08 pm, that
these producers place 15,733 tons on the market and as such needed to recover
cumulatively over 53% of market placement

Instead certificates submitted to
MEPA for the period showed recovery of 566 tons, a 55.8% of the market placement.
This is not acceptable to ‘ bona fide' producers who pay schemes financially.
No new members have joined schemes since Jan 2012 when enforcement was
moved/transferred to the Enforcement Directorate. 

To add insult to injury,
since the MEPA segregation between Environment and planning is still taking
place, MEPA Enforcement is not enforcing legislation LN 277 of 2006 and
subsequent circulars issued to enforce such legislation.

Why is this? It's simple!
When the segregation issue is over it will be Minister Leo Brincat who will be
burdened with the issue, and whatever happens from then on, would only mirror
badly on Minister Leo Brincat. Whist we are sure that Minister Leo Brincat is
astute enough to take decisions without any bickering it is not fair that a
Directorate with substantial manpower has since January 2012 done next to
nothing over the enforcement of LN 277 of 2006.

Let us be direct. Green
MT has brought to the attention of MEPA in two meetings that nearly 600
producers (importers) are known ‘free riders'. This means that in the year 2009
they had renewed their Packaging & Packaging Waste Registration and have
not done so for 2010, 2011, and 2012.

Why? Because they did not
have the information MEPA requested them to have, which included an audit trail
of their packaging waste market placement and its recovery and disposal rate.

Without the above, no
renewal could be affected, so these 600 did not renew and MEPA took no action.
Today these 600 producers totally disregard their obligation to comply to LN
277 of 2006, they have done nothing since early 2010, at the least.

On seeing this we
cordially asked MEPA to inform these producers that they are in breach of the
legislation and since they have not come up with the required documentation,
they now have a time frame (60, 90 days) to join on Authorised Scheme. Was this
asking too much?

It seems that for MEPA it
was. As earlier stated this lack of enforcement by civil servants who speak
about being pro-environment but are actually doing well below their standard
requirements.

Time flies and we are now
nearly at the close of 2013. The way things have been going on since 2012,
early January, leave much to be desired.

Current operations are
stalling due to lack of funds brought about by the lack of enforcement. And of
course, one can do a lot of cost cutting measures but it's a pity that these
will include no weekly collections from schools which were until end 2009
serviced by Wasteserv and after that to date by Authorised Schemes. We will now
be asking school to use the Recycle Tuesday's Service, and also a Thursday or
Friday collection where it is available.

MEPA is more interested
in looking within than looking outside, we are giving a wrong direction. We are
playing with our own environmental future.

In this entire scenario,
and if operations start to be reduced, it will have to be Minister Leo Brincat
to shoulder the responsibility. After all the policy always was, that
Government has to move where the private sector cannot cope.

Most of the private
sector is working hard and providing finances to schemes. These are those that
are known, there are many others that need to follow, and it's here where MEPA
Enforcement Directorate needed to be the catalyst.

Green MT, a fully owned
subsidiary of the GRTU has until now been patient, worked day in day, for some
of us without sleep to make this extended producer responsibility an integral
part of our common good. Our calls to make sure that everyone is on board and a
fair level playing field have gone unheeded. Our final call will be on the
Prime Minister himself. We are sure that Dr Joseph Muscat will listen to our
urgent plea. It would then be up to others to take immediate action. Soon, and
so enough, this situation needs to be corrected, all we ask for is a fair and
level playing field for all producers, is it asking too much?

The European Commission
published earlier this year a communication making an official commitment to
the setting up of a European Retail Action Plan. The Communication is high on
GRTU's agenda. We have in fact been involved in discussions at a very early stage,
prior to the issuance of this Communication and later when it was issued we
also submitted a detailed position paper to the Maltese Government to outline
our priorities.

GRTU is now monitoring progress and lobbying in favour of
retail and against any negative aspects that some stakeholders are seeking to
have included.As Europe's biggest
private sector employer, retail has the potential to continue creating new jobs
and wealth. Retail thrives in Europe, employing around 18 million people across
the EU and accounting for 4.2% of GDP. 20% of Europe's SMEs are retailers.

The Communication is a
significant step for retail to be given the importance it deserves. The
Commission's Retail Market Monitoring Report (July 2010) recognised the
positive role that retail plays in Europe's economy and identified a number of
issues that need to be addressed in order to allow the sector to realise its
full potential thus contributing to further economic growth and job creation.

The Commission's plan
aims to further integrate the retail sector in the internal market through the
identification of five objectives intended to create more competitive and
sustainableretail services, encouraging innovation and empowering consumers
through better information.

GRTU was very pleased to
learn that a Maltese MEP, David Casa, has been entrusted with drafting an
Opinion for the European Parliament on such an important topic for GRTU and its
members. So far the opinion seems very positive.

The Opinion focuses on
the importance of addressing the mismatch between labour force skills and the
requirements of the retail sector, suggesting that action in this regard could
enhance the employability of young people, long-term unemployed, older workers
and people with disabilities. It also calls for the enhanced use of existing EU
instruments, such as the Skills Sector Alliance, which support structured
partnerships between skills providers and businesses. The Opinion also gives
importance to micro enterprises in terms providing support for new trends that
enhance efficiency in the provision of retail services.

Mr Casa is currently in
process of accepting amendments to his Opinion; he will then be responsible for
negotiating compromises with other MEPs prior to a vote in the Parliament's
Employment Committee in the coming weeks.

GRTU is informed that
some amendments are being proposed by fellow MEPs which we consider to be
negative. These mostly concern aspects related to shop opening hours, wages and
other issues which we feel are best dealt with at national level. It is not
only an issue of subsidiarity, whereby some issues are the responsibility of
the Member States and not the EU, but also practicality, if we cannot reach
agreement on certain sensitive issues at Member State level, how are we
expected to agree at EU level? Each Member State has its own traditions,
religious beliefs and social system and on such aspects decisions concerning
shop opening hours and working time are based. This is how it should be.

GRTU will also be
lobbying at this important stage of the Opinion before the it is approved by
Parliament.

Increased level of official controls
on feed and food of non-animal origin is in application since 25 January 2010:
Regulation (EC) No 669/2009 provides for a coordinated and uniform control
approach at the EU border when a known or emerging risk has been identified; in
addition to the 'routine' checks performed by competent authorities. The report
lists products delisted from increased controls due to satisfactory levels of
compliance reported in 2012. Others, such as groundnuts from Ghana and India,
okra and curry leaves from India and watermelon seeds from Nigeria were added
to the list for increased controls

Further information can be found at:

http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/controls/increased_checks/docs/results_ms_border_controls_2012_en.pdf

Hourly labour costs in the euro area
(EA17) rose by 0.9% in the year up to the second quarter of 2013, compared with
+1.7% for the first quarter of 2013. In the EU27, the annual rise was also 0.9%
up to the second quarter of 2013, compared with +2.0% in the previous quarter.
These figures are published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European
Union.

During a special event held in
Brussels, seven EU associations launched ‘The Supply Chain Initiative' with the
aim of ensuring fairness in commercial relations along the food supply chain.
In November 2011, members of The
Supply Chain Initiative agreed on a set of Principles of Good Practice,
including a list of examples of fair and unfair practices in vertical trading
relationships.

These were warmly welcomed by the High Level Forum for a Better
Functioning Food Supply Chain of the European Commission and subsequently, a
voluntary Framework for their implementation and enforcement was adopted in
January 2013.  Since then, all companies
involved in the food supply chain have been encouraged to formally sign up and
implement the Initiative.  The hope is
that EU policy-makers will give the Initiative a chance to deliver and
meanwhile, for those not yet on board, the door remains firmly open for other
stakeholders to join.  

82 companies from across the entire
EU have expressed their intention to register. Half of these are local
companies. Taking into account the subsidiaries of international groups, 457
operating companies are signed up. 

Existing EU measures for the
apiculture sector have helped EU producers to maintain production of high
quality honey in the EU, despite a difficult context with rising production
costs, threats to bee survival and fierce international competition by honey
imports from third countries, according to a Commission report published today.

GRTU is currently in discussions with
Malta Enterprise, the Ministry for Energy and the Conservation of water and the
Ministry for the Economy, Investment and Small Business in order to find
solutions that could mitigate the loss of the ERDF scheme. We believe that
since all sides have good intentions, a practical solution should be found
shortly, which results would outway the benefits of the suspended ERDF scheme
itself.

GRTU highlights the priorities
for its members and calls for improvements in the administration of EU funds – GRTU Malta Chamber of SMEs has
replied to the public consultation on the ‘Programming of European Funds for
Malta 2014-2020' with a comprehensive document which outlined the priorities
expressed by its members and also how decisive improvements were needed in the
way funds were administered.

This follows an intensive internal
consultation carried out with GRTU members where two consultation meetings were
held, one in Malta and one in Gozo, where GRTU explained Government's vision
and guidelines as outlined in the public consultation document and gathered feedback
from members. The majority of enterprises present for the consultation
expressed their disappointment at some stage or another when having touched
with funds and incentives in the past. Enterprises still have a very negative
perception of EU funds and for many their experiences at one point or another
has turned sour.

In order to make serious improvements
to the next programming period that will run for 7 years, GRTU has called for
greater assistance and specialized helpdesks to assist enterprises in accessing
funds and incentives, reduction of bureaucracy and a simplification exercise
across the board, greater transparency and accountability with regards to the
why projects are approved or refused and having the criteria clearly outlined
in black on white and not having to depend on the whims of an adjudicator. GRTU
also called for the authorities and those responsible to adhere to set
deadlines for issuing reimbursements and holding appeals, where required.

We have welcomed Government's
approach in involving the private sector, something mentioned throughout the
consultation document. GRTU has requested a mix of financial instruments
including grants, loan guarantees and loans with an advantageous interest rate,
etc… to cater for the various needs of enterprises. Enterprises want more
assistance and incentives related to e-commerce and exports. We want basic
schemes targeted at the private sector related to subsidised employment and
training and investment in upgrading machinery and purchasing of renewable
energy mechanisms to be made permanent as enterprises cannot time their
investment needs with the short period during which schemes are made available.
GRTU and its members also called for assistance for enterprises to restructure and
upgrade to required or international standards.

GRTU supported Government's intention
to alleviate the problem of traffic congestion by assisting alternative means
of transport including transport by sea and called to include the problem of
parking in the strategy as well as incentivise the use and conversion of empty
buildings into accommodation facilities, child and elderly care centres and
offices, which could boost our localities and alleviate traffic in the
traditional centres. GRTU called for increased assistance for start-ups and
helping business ideas to materialise. We called on more incentives for
enterprises to invest in locally produced products of high quality, supporting
investments in agri-tourism and supporting the crafts sector and the restructuring
of crafts centres.

Gozo enterprises members of GRTU
asked for funds to go to increased transport facilities between the two islands
as well as special assistance that would facilitate and alleviate the cost of
transport of goods and services. It was however emphasized that these were just
incentives aimed at mitigating the current situation which should be resolved
with a permanent link between Malta and Gozo in the future.