Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/624751
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 10 JANUARY 2016 News 11 MIRIAM DALLI CLOSE to 600 individuals engaged in a com- munity work scheme will be transferred to the private sector after the General Workers' Union won a tender to operate the scheme. The scheme, launched in 2009 for the long- term unemployed, now also includes those registering for work to provide them place- ments of up to 30 hours a week with local councils, schools and NGOs at a rate of 75% the minimum wage, offering them an oppor- tunity to contribute 30 hours per week to a local council, school or NGO. In exchange, they received 75 per cent of the minimum wage. As unemployed, the participants were not entitled to statutory benefits. The scheme attracted 598 LTUs but failed to put them into work or obtain skills to help them find a job. Clyde Caruana, chairman of the Employment & Training Corporation said most were "trapped" in their placement. "A substantial number will reach retirement age in a few years; others are unemployable, with no skills whatsoever," Caruana said. Participants would also claim to have worked a set number of hours when in reality they would have worked fewer. The fact that they weren't entitled to any vacation or sick leave did not help. Under the GWU, the participants will work up to 40 hours a week and will regarded as being in employment. "Participants refus- ing the scheme will be struck off the register and will not be entitled to benefits for six months," Caruana said, adding that the aim of the scheme is to regularise such workers and "curtail abuse". Caruana said he hopes the scheme will in- crease the workers' productivity and help them cross the bridge over into employment, apart from honouring a government pledge to scores currently in precarious employment. The GWU clinched the tender with an of- fer of €980 for each participant. The Demajo- Grant Thornton consortium tendered with €1,178 per particpant, while JF Group of- ferred €110 per participant – an error in the bid that led to its automatic disqualification because the offer did not even meet the mini- mum wage requirements. $ Revamped work scheme for jobless tackles wage abuse THE shortest ever defamation threat has been rescinded. Gharb's mayor David Apap Agius (see cartoon page 27) yesterday an- nounced he would not take court action for slander against Kate Holmes, the mother of convicted drug trafficker Daniel Holmes. Apap Agius said he wanted to sue Holmes for claiming that Gharb mystic healer Francis Xavier Mer- cieca, popularly known as Frenc tal-Gharb, used cannabis herbs to cure certain ailments. The PN mayor said Holmes had retracted the allegations made ear- lier this week. "The council felt duty-bound to address the allegations made by Mrs Holmes. Frenc tal-Gharb holds a special place in the heart of all those forming part of the Gharb community, and in the heart of many Maltese and Gozitans alike. This became evident dur- ing this week in particular given the number of calls made and the number of messages received by the Gharb Local Council support- ing its decision to intervene." The internet took a different view however, with numerous bloggers lambasting the ridiculous move and photoshopped images of Frenc as a dreadlocked Rasta making the rounds on Facebook. In an appeal for her son's case to be reconsidered, Mrs Holmes said that Frenċ tal-Gharb had cured many sick people in Malta and Gozo "and his secret medicine is now known to be cannabis". Daniel Holmes is serving a 10- year prison sentence for a drug conviction, and was fined €23,000 for cultivating about a kilo of can- nabis, although there has since been controversy over how the weight of the plant was calculated. "We cannot believe it possible that our son is wasting his life in prison when President Obama is reviewing and releasing crimi- nals early from their drug related sentences, when America has de- clared that marijuana can play an important part in medical use in a range of conditions, including can- cer and has approved new medical marijuana legislation." Frenc tal-Gharb, she said, had cured many sick people in Malta and Gozo during his life time and his secret medicine is now known to be cannabis. Mayor retracts over slander on mystic's cannabis use