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18 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR Matthew Vella MANAGING EDITOR Saviour Balzan Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 26 AUGUST 2018 27 August, 2008 Prison director resigns in 'star' inmate row Hot on the heels of press reports that prison inmate Leli Camilleri, 'il-Bully', acted as a mid- dleman on behalf of inmates, Police Superinten- dent Sandro Gatt – the director of the Corradino Correctional Facility – has submitted a formal request to be reassigned to the Police Corps. A Department of Information statement yes- terday announced that the Ministry for Justice and Home Affairs had accepted the request. His resignation came on Monday, a day after the ministry launched a probe into the prison director's practice of having Camilleri act as intermediary for Dutch inmate Perry Ingumar Toornstra, the failed prison escapee who is now at the centre of allegations concerning prison guard abuse. Camilleri is a convicted drug trafficker, serving 35 years for planting a bomb outside the home of Assistant Police Commissioner Michael Cassar. Prison director Sandro Gatt himself admitted to The Sunday Times that Camilleri's role was more or less standard procedure in prison. Another prisoner, Tunisian Mohsen Mosbah, took care of Arab prisoners' complaints. Even the former chairman of the prison board Mario Felice was quoted as saying that Camilleri "leads a very prominent role in the prison. He enjoys a lot of things which others do not, in- cluding access to the prison director..." Police Inspector Abraham Zammit, the prison's deputy director, was appointed agent director at Corradino. The Ministry of Home Af- fairs has also appointed Emanuel Cassar to head an independent board to investigate reports on alleged shortcomings at the prisons. Tuna libels MaltaToday's managing editor Saviour Balzan will be filing a writ asking the Magistrates' Court to hear the libel cases lodged by Malta's fish farm industry against this newspaper with urgency. MaltaToday will be summoning foreign ex- perts from Greenpeace and Advanced Tuna Ranching Technologies, among others, to take the witness stand. "This newspaper sees these libel suits as a clear attempt to prevent MaltaToday from desisting from its duty to publish information and news stories on the Maltese tuna industry and the involvement of the Maltese government on the statistics presented to ICCAT on tuna exports," managing editor Saviour Balzan said. Five fish-farm operators – Mare Blu Tuna Farm Ltd, Ta' Mattew Fish Farms Ltd, Fish and Fish Ltd, Malta Fishfarming Ltd and AJD Tuna Ltd – filed the suit in the Magistrates' Court against editor Saviour Balzan and journalist Raphael Vassallo. They argued that the article titled 'Tuna Export Figures Questioned By Ex- perts' was libellous and defamatory. Lawyer John Refalo signed the writ. MaltaToday 10 years ago Quote of the Week 'Good will' is owed to workers, too THE Equality Ministry's recent U-turn over new vacation leave regulations speaks volumes about the balance of power in Malta's indus- trial relations today. On 14 August, the ministry announced a number of amendments to current leave regulations – among other aspects relevant to employment law – to be enforced by January 2019. The new regulations stipulated that: "the employer may only utilise up to the equivalent of 12 working days from the annual leave en- titlement for the purposes of any type of shut- down [...]"; that "once leave from the annual entitlement has been agreed to by the em- ployer and employee, it can only be cancelled if both sides agree"; that "annual leave shall continue to accrue in favour of an employee during the period when they are on maternity, injury or sick leave"; and that "in case of ter- mination of employment, all the leave accrued during a period of maternity leave, sickness or injury that had not been availed of, must be paid in accordance with the Organisation of Working Time Regulations." Other regulations extend existing benefits to maternity leave, as well as necessitating item- ised pay-slips, among other things. At a glance, it is difficult to comprehend why such basic, reasonable amendments should have been met with so much resistance by employers: to the extent that the ministry felt compelled to suspend their enactment 'as a sign of good will'. The new regulations contain aspects that are, in fact, already stipulated elsewhere in Malta's labour laws – though not necessarily in such detail, and not necessarily extended to all categories of employee. Moreover, they represent fair and equitable protection for some very basic workers' rights. It would be regrettable to have to conclude that the Chamber of Commerce and the Malta Employers' Association – both of which came out strongly against the proposals – would favour the unilateral termination of leave al- ready granted by consent of the employer; or deduct sick- or maternity leave from annual leave, which is, in any case, already against the law. To be fair, the official complaint concerned a lack of consultation with the social partners. It is true that the changes seem to have been sur- reptitiously introduced at a time – the feast of Santa Marija – when most Maltese are on holi- day. But even if justified, the complaint is only about the way the changes were introduced: on its own, it is not enough to warrant objections to the actual changes themselves. Yet the ministry withdrew its proposals un- der threat of a boycott by the aforementioned social partners, who said they would not at- tend meetings of the Employment Relations Board in protest at the new vacation leave rules. Surely, this is a case of excessive force by the associations concerned. Be that as it may, government's reluctance to face the challenge head-on is symptomatic with a broader approach to labour issues in Malta as a whole. This is not the first time any Maltese government – nor even this Maltese government – has bent over backwards to ac- commodate employers' complaints at the mer- est sign of discontent. The case is redolent of the way a minimum wage increase was finally brought into force, only after the concerted ef- fort of a coalition of NGOs; and then only with an annual 3% increase over three years. But the phenomenon is mostly visible in its converse form: where governments favour commercial interests directly (rather than in- directly, by limiting employee rights). In other instances, business demands are often met swiftly and decisively in favour of business, even if to the detriment to particular sectors of society. A classic case in point would be the con- struction industry, where planning rules are often flexibly interpreted to accommodate developers' ventures, even if this results in a downgrade to residents' quality of life, or dam- age to the environment. In this case, however, the portents are omi- nous. Malta's economic model is undergo- ing radical and rapid transformation. There is great demand for labour – resulting in the importation of workers from overseas – in a context where the infrastructure guaranteeing employee protection is being weakened in- stead of strengthened, as it should be. Moviment Graffiti's spokesman Andre Cal- lus puts the matter succinctly: "Many workers in Malta are suffering from low pay and bad conditions of work. Employers have consist- ently vetoed any effort to improve the condi- tions of workers and have even opposed, suc- cessfully, a raise in Malta's meagre minimum wage. Regulations ensuring certainty for work- ers with regards to their days of rest, and the provision of clear information about their pay, are the very bare minimum for safeguarding workers' rights. The fact that employers' as- sociations are forcefully opposing even these very basic provisions goes to show their dis- regard for their workers, without whom they would not be making a cent of their profits." This practice is admittedly not unique to the present government; but it is more incongru- ous, coming from a Socialist party that claims to champion the ordinary worker. It seems, however, that Labour is more interested in ac- commodating employers; while any legal no- tices that directly benefit workers, and which would reduce the flexibility of employers to maximise labour gains, are never driven for- ward as a sign of 'good will' towards workers. Editorial "I am yet to be convinced that the safety features that are being put in place by these concessions would be enough if a speeding car lost control." Gzira mayor Conrad Borg Manché