This Legal Notice tries to regularise the employment of workers under the title of self-employment. GRTU has raised this issue both here in Malta with the responsible Ministry, at the Employment Relations Board (ERB) when the ERB asked for GRTU's advise and in Brussels directly with DG Enterprise and with DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion and GRTU as the Maltese national organisation representing the self-employed sector and micro, small and medium employers, is satisfied that the new legal regulations regulating the employment of individuals on a relationship of self-employment does not hamper genuine entrepreneurs who seek to farm out work to professional and independent self-employed and that under the excuse of self-employment no unfair competition is created to hamper the opportunities for work for those who as a vocational choice prefer to work as independent small private entrepreneurs better known as self-employed.
Overall the new regulations concluded after lengthy consultations achieve a fair balance between the rights of genuine self-employed and the right of enterprise to choose the form of engagement best suitable to encourage further private initiative and economic growth. GRTU, however stresses that this is one other case were in spite of the Small Business Act provisions action is being taken by Government without any statistical evidence justifying the requirement and without any measure of the impact of these new bureaucratic burdens on business and employment. GRTU continues to emphasise that it is the right of enterprise to seek first and foremost how to continue to offer on the market good quality service and products within the most competitive environment and in the absence of excessive bureaucratic burdens.
Here rather than reducing, Government is increasing bureaucratic burdens, in a labour market which in Malta is already very restrictive and at a time when our overseas competitors are liberalising and not further restricting the labour market.