Prime Minister Robert Abela has announced a blanket ban on new work permits for taxi drivers and food couriers. He has warned employment agencies against trying to find loopholes to bring in new third-country nationals for these sectors.Prime Minister Robert Abela has announced a blanket ban on new work permits for taxi drivers and food couriers. He has warned employment agencies against trying to find loopholes to bring in new third-country nationals for these sectors. Abela stated that JobsPlus has rejected hundreds of applications from employees who applied for certain jobs but ended up working as taxi drivers or food couriers. He emphasized that there is no tolerance for such practices, and warned that applications attempting to circumvent the ban will be rejected. This ban is intended to address the issue of Maltese workers facing declining earnings due to increased competition from foreign workers. Abela believes that it will encourage employers to treat their current foreign workers better and improve their working conditions, since they cannot easily replace them. However, Abela declined to comment on whether the ban will lead to higher prices for taxi rides and food delivery, stating that only a few individuals will express dissatisfaction with the status quo. In the coming weeks, JobsPlus will conduct a labor market overview to determine which additional jobs should be closed to third-country nationals. Abela assured that this will only be implemented after extensive consultation, but indicated that healthcare and elderly care workers will not be affected. Abela emphasized that while it may be tempting to indulge in populism and exclude foreign workers, it would be unfair to the healthcare and elderly care sectors, where they are essential.
After Prime Minister Robert Abela announced a blanket ban on new work permits for taxi drivers and food couriers, he warned employment agencies against trying to find loopholes to bring in new third-country nationals for these sectors.
Abela said today on ONE TV’s Paperscan program that JobsPlus has already rejected hundreds of applications from employees who applied for certain jobs, but ended up working as a taxi driver or food courier.
“There is no room for this kind of games,” Abela warned. “To those who are trying to get on life support, I say it is not even worth the time you are wasting because your applications are being rejected.”
Abela said this blanket ban will do justice to Maltese workers who had purchased a car to work in the sector but whose earnings had dropped significantly, sometimes even below the minimum wage, due to increased competition from foreign workers.
He also said that it will encourage employers to treat their current foreign workers with dignity and improve their working conditions, as they cannot replace their workers with other foreign workers if they decide to leave Malta.
However, the prime minister dodged the question of whether the prices of taxi rides and food delivery will skyrocket as a result of the reform, saying only that “a few people will make a lot of noise because they are satisfied with the status quo”.
In a few weeks, JobsPlus will publish a labour market overview to determine which jobs should be closed to third-country nationals. Abela promised that it would only be implemented after an extensive consultation period, but indicated that workers in the health and elderly care sectors would not be affected.
“I could be populist, as some people like to be, and say that Malta doesn’t need foreign workers or that we can do without them. But if I had to tell that story in those two sectors, I would be wrong and unfair to the people.”
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