Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/413175
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 9 NOVEMBER 2014 6 News JAMES DEBONO LEISURE Clothing, the Chinese company facing allegations of ex- ploitation and human trafficking, is allowed to employ five Chinese workers for every Maltese employed with the company, a spokesperson for the Employment and Training Corporation confirmed. Work licences for Chinese em- ployed at this textiles company have been issued automatically since 1986 thanks to a quota agreement between the company and the government, which logs the number Maltese em- ployees to that of Chinese employees according to a pre-established ratio, which was originally set at four Chi- nese workers for each Maltese work- er employed. But in 2014 the quota agreement was changed to enable the company to employ five Chinese nationals for every Maltese employed. MaltaToday is informed that the reason for this change was that the company could not recruit enough Maltese workers to meet the estab- lished quota. The Chinese-owned company was recently singled out by the Nation- alist Party's newspaper in-Nazzjon over allegations of human traffick- ing. During the past days the police interrogated company officials and the Department for Industrial and Employment Relations has com- menced court proceedings over breaches in employment law. In an act of full disclosure the Em- ployment and Training Corporation and the Ministry for Education and Employment provided MaltaToday with all statistics and documentation on agreements governing the em- ployment of third country nationals at Leisure Clothing. The company currently employs 54 Maltese (26 of whom are part timers) and 122 Chinese workers. Apart from these Chinese workers the company employs also 26 North Koreans, 10 South Koreans, seven Vietnamese and one Chilean on a full time basis. The number of Chinese increased from 80 in December 2006 to 161 in December 2011, only to decline to 122 by October 2014. But the decrease in Chinese work- ers was compensated by an increase of workers from other South Asian countries. Workers from these na- tionalities have only been employed since 2013. How Maltese jobs were logged to Chinese jobs Leisure Clothing started opera- tions in 1986 following an agreement between Malta and the Chongqing regional authorities in China. In September 2004, an agreement was reached between the govern- ment and Leisure Clothing Ltd to ensure that the number of Chinese citizens employed should at no time exceed 70. It was also agreed that the com- pany should increase the number of Maltese workers from 25 to 27. In August 2007, MaltaToday re- vealed that Leisure Clothing Ltd was moving its operations from its Cor- radino facility to a plant which was to be vacated by textiles company Bortex, after the latter laid off 113 Maltese workers due to foreign com- petitiveness pressure. In October 2009 Leisure Clothing Ltd asked for the employment of an additional 55 Chinese workers, thereby raising the workforce from 110 to 165. The Employment and Training Corporation disagreed with this re- quest. In February 2010, Social Policy Minister John Dalli, agreed with Leisure Clothing: One Maltese Long standing quota mechanism establishing ratio between Chinese and Maltese workers at the textiles factory was changed last year from four Chinese workers for every Maltese worker employed to five Chinese workers for every Maltese worker employed after factory found it difficult to recruit Maltese workers JAM ES DEBONO TRANSPORT Malta (TM) is proposing a new roundabout op- posite the White Rocks site, in a project that will realign part of Triq Sant Andrija. Several trees will have to be uprooted and rubble walls de- molished to take up more unde- veloped land in an area already disturbed by the widening of the Coast Road. TM says the project is required to enable cars to cross from one carriageway of the coast road to the other. "Since the Coast Road project includes a continuous cen- tral strip, it will only be possible to cross over the carriageway at a number of defined locations. One of these locations will be at the proposed roundabout, which lies towards the end of the project." The roundabout will be mainly used by cars coming from Madl- iena Hill that want to travel north and vice-versa. It will also be used by residents living between Triq San Gwann l-Evangelista and Madliena Hill who want to travel north and vice-versa. An ancient tomb found in the area will be preserved and trees in the area transplanted to adjacent areas. The project will also include compensatory planting of addi- tional trees. The application coincides with plans for the redevelopment of the White Rocks complex. The TM spokesperson said that an entry and exit route for the White Rocks complex can be easily constructed in the future without the need to demolish or alter the newly con- structed road. The coast road project has al- ready resulted in a massive take-up of undeveloped land. The rounda- bout plans were presented by TM back in December 2012, but only accepted by MEPA last week. New roundabout proposed opposite White Rocks e Minister for Sustainable Development, the Environment and Climate Change and the Parliamentary Secretary for Planning and Simplication of Administrative Processes in consultation with the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) are issuing for public consultation a proposed amendment in the procedure for minor modications to subsidiary plans. Currently, a Planning Control (PC) application for a change in zoning or street alignment is subject to written consent of at least 75% of owners in the area aected, as dened by MEPA. e aim of revising this Legal Notice is to remove the need for written consent by aected third parties and thus facilitate the processing of planning control applications. e obligation that aected third parties are to be notied by the applicant and the provisions for third parties to make submissions to the Authority shall not be aected by this revision. is revision does not apply for Planning Control applications related to rationalisation sites. e proposed amendment in the procedure for minor modications to subsidiary plans can be viewed on the MEPA website; www.mepa.org.mt/public-consultation. MEPA invites the public and interested parties to send in their comments and feedback related to this new proposed amendment. Representations are to be made in writing to the: Chief Executive Ocer P.O Box 200 Marsa GPO 01 Or on the email address feedback@mepa.org.mt Submissions must be sent to the Authority by not later that 14 th November 2014. PUBLIC CONSULTATION Amendment in the procedure for minor modications to subsidiary plans. Total Number of workers employed at Leisure Clothing 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Chinese 81 110 117 154 161 155 136 122 Full time Maltese 18 19 23 29 30 33 31 28 Part time Maltese 4 4 5 12 16 15 22 26 North Koreans 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 26 Others 0 0 0 0 0 0 17 18 Coast adjacent to White Rocks site