Interview | Sunday, 21 December 2008

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Changes we can believe in

For sociologist Godfrey Baldacchino, it is the small, everyday changes that will make all the difference when it comes to transforming and modernising Malta’s labour market

James Debono

“Try getting, say, from Qormi to Luqa daily by bus to offload the kids, and then still turn up on time at work in Sliema at 9am. Forget it.”
According to sociologist Prof. Godfrey Baldacchino, it is everyday problems such as our dysfunctional public transport system that make female participation in the labour market difficult.
Baldacchino explains how important it is for a mother (or father, for that matter) to able to catch a bus (or two) to take the kids to nanna or a childcare centre of her/his choice early enough to be able to get to work, and on time.
As we converse, his words resonate a sense of Zen wisdom: a sense that change is possible in the here and now, and not in some distant Utopian future devoid of the challenges of the modern world.
Currently occupying the post of Canada Research Chair in Island Studies at the University of Prince Edward Island, Baldacchino still sticks to his reputation as one of the few Maltese intellectuals who apply their knowledge to contribute to the Maltese public sphere.
Rather than shunning economic changes which are not in the habit of waiting for anyone, Baldacchino manages to marry values like social justice, participation and inclusion to the very market forces which have brought about a greater fragmentation of the labour market.
One key element, in which Baldacchino argues the state has a fundamental role, is education.
Baldacchino is foursquare behind the reforms being contemplated by the government in the secondary school sector aimed at reducing the importance of the 11-plus examination system in determining the future, and fate, of youth. These will attend the same educational colleges instead of being segregated between “failures” who end up attending area secondary schools and those who “succeed” and who are promoted to junior lyceums.
However, he counsels: “We need to move away from an education system based on rote and memory work and examination, as well as one where only academic achievements are prized.”
Streaming in education has a direct impact on how people integrate in the labour market. “Many individuals have been losing their confidence to engage in the labour market from an early age. Labelling has tended to lower the career aspirations of children from poorer or working class backgrounds; driving down their self-confidence and stunting their achievement targets.”
But Baldacchino goes one step further, suggesting that we should also consider removing streaming based on gender, which could also be lowering the aspirations of young females.
“We are still operating in a system where boys and girls are segregated for many years in the schooling system. Recent evidence does not point to any advantage girls were supposed to have in an educational context devoid of boys.”
Nor is Baldacchino trapped in pre-conceived notions which favour traditional full-time work arrangements over more flexible forms like part-time work.
For Baldacchino the growth of part-time work can be a sign of a dynamic economy. He notes that many of the world’s fasting growing economies are creating jobs which are not necessarily full-time.
“If you look at part-time work from a classical male perspective, one would argue that it is unsavoury and deficient in principle. However, if one were to look at this issue from the perspective of those workers (especially women) who want to participate in the labour market while leaving enough time to have a fulfilling domestic life with their kids and spouses, one would adopt a different perspective. I am sure that there are thousands of women seeking decent and suitable part time employment. They would, by the way, include my own wife.”
But to get there we need strategies in place to accommodate childcare and more effective public transport, argues Baldacchino.
In the past two budgets, the government has relied on fiscal incentives to encourage the participation of women in the labour market. As from this budget, every working mother has a tax-free year incentive for every child she has given birth to since 2007.
Baldacchino considers this as a “very helpful start” but also calls for more targeted measures like childcare vouchers.
“In this way you encourage parents to identify a childcare centre in the market which meets their needs. At the same time it would create a healthy competition among the childcare centres themselves and facilitate the growth of that sector.”
Another problem working mums face is school times, which do not coincide with work hours. Baldacchino does not favour the extension of school hours, which are already long, but favours the expansion of the role of the school as a fulcrum for community activities, which would include childcare and adult education services.
“In the long term we can look at a situation where the official schooling time is reduced, but the contact hours that students and other individuals spend in the school environment is increased.”
What’s certain for Baldacchino is that the economy does not wait for anyone and nobody can afford to miss the bus.
And economic changes have changed the ‘troika’ of work clusters which dominated the Maltese labour market for the past decades.
Until recently, the Maltese workforce has been spread out fairly equally between the public service, relatively large, mainly foreign-owned companies; and the smaller, family-owned businesses. But the contemporary labour market includes new clusters of workers.
One of these new categories consists in employees of statutory authorities. He notes that although the State has slowly but surely been diminishing its labour complement, this was not necessarily brought about by privatisation but also by the State hiving off its functions to authorities, agencies and other statutory bodies.
“These bodies tend to be more flexible in their recruiting practices thus having elements of ‘marketisation’ but at the same time most of their employees enjoy security of tenure.”
Another important new cluster consists in foreign workers. Official statistics suggest nearly 10,000 foreign workers in Malta, when one includes those operating in the underground economy.
“Many of these workers must have highly individualized contracts of work. They would have distinct career paths and professional aspirations. This creates new challenges to our training system, the education system, trade unions and the national labour market as whole.”
Baldacchino thinks that a deterioration of working conditions is actually taking place in certain occupations because of the availability of immigrants whose work is cheaper than that provided by the Maltese. But this should be a short-term phenomenon.
“If these individuals are encouraged to train themselves, educate themselves and look for better paid jobs, they will move up from the lower rungs of the job ladder. As to whether other migrants will take their place, whether the Maltese will take their place, or whether the market will simply bottom off in a different way, this is still hard to say.”
Surely, trade unions – whose traditional constituency was composed of full time male workers – are not immune to these and other changes in the economic infrastructure.
“The more they come face to face with demands from members and potential members who reflect the new realities, the more they will be obliged to respond to them and in the process change their structures.”
One thing that according to official statistics has mysteriously defied economic changes has been trade union membership.
Back in 2002, Baldacchino predicted that, on the basis of current trends, the Unjon Haddiema Maqghudin would have had as many members as the General Workers’ Union by 2018; excluding pensioners, even earlier. He based this forecast on the registered growth in the membership of the UHM and the concurrent decline in the membership of the GWU, whose core members happened to be in manufacturing sectors which suffered the brunt of the economic recession.
“At that time these trends suggested that the GWU and UHM would have reached level membership by 2020. But since then according to official statistics both unions are minimally increasing members. So this trend seems to have dissipated... unless we question the statistics on which these assumptions are made.”
With most workers opting for early retirement, one big blow for the GWU’s strength is the prospective privatisation of the dockyard.
For Baldacchino this brings to a close a very long and distinguished chapter not just in Maltese history, but also politics.
“I might suspect – and actually do wish – that there is a future for a viable Malta Drydocks in some form. Much will depend on the nature of the potential buyer or buyers.”
Baldacchino welcomes the fact that those opting for early retirement are allowed to seek alternative employment, and considers this measure as a “slick but expensive strategy for neutralising any resistance to the closure of certain enterprises. It is also a measure for stimulating the local economy.”
The relationship between the two largest union camps remains uneasy despite renewed hopes of syndicate unity. After all Maltese trade unions temporarily managed to present a common front against the government on the issue of the hike of electricity and water tariffs. This raised hopes of further trade union cooperation through the institution of a trade union council; yet it took only a week for the coalition to split up with the UHM and the CMTU announcing their agreement with the government while all the other unions, including the GWU and the MUT, still saying that no agreement has been reached.
Yet, as Baldacchino points out, Malta is far from an anomaly in having a divided trade union movement.
“Actually, most countries today have two, three or more national trade union federations or confederations. Spain and Sweden have four each; the Czech Republic and France have five; Italy has seven. Only 31 countries in the world have a single, national trade union con/federation, and they do not include the United Kingdom, which also has four. And just as in Malta, these federations pander to different constituencies and often agree to disagree. However, they are also often pragmatic and can agree to collaborate when they feel they share a common interest.”
Baldacchino considers all the talk of setting up a trade union council as “a lot of pie in the sky” that deflects discussion from more serious issues.
He prefers a more fluid organisational structure through which unions can meet to respond to common challenges by developing a coalition of interests.
“Having a unifying trade union structure may look nice; but does not address underlying challenges. Take, for example, the issue of the representation of the GWU on a TUC. Would decisions be taken on the basis of a simple or qualified majority? Would some or all unions (including those with the legal minimum of seven members) have a veto?”
Ironically, hopes for the creation of a trade union council have coincided with a fall-out between the CMTU leadership and the Malta Union of Teachers. Baldacchino warns that a body set up to unite unions would face the same problems as the CMTU.
“The whole point of setting up the CMTU in 1958 was to act as a Maltese TUC and encourage trade union unity. The CMTU is now in a very difficult situation because the UHM (which remains the largest member within the CMTU) has succeeded in getting separate representation in all the bodies where the CMTU was represented. So you have this strange situation in bodies like the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development, where both the CMTU and the UHM are represented, along with the General Workers’ Union.”
Still, at least for a short time, trade unions have realised that unity brings strength. What brought this about was a massive increase in utility bills which risks undermining workers’ purchasing power at a time when the whole world is gripped by a recession .
“It is quite ironic that, while the rest of the world is contemplating measures to provide more money in people’ pockets to encourage them to spend and fuel the economic cycle, the Maltese government is contemplating a measure which could reduce consumer spending,” observes Baldacchino.
But he is convinced that the government will be watching the economic signs carefully. If consumer demand falls, “the State would be expected to respond quickly and in the appropriate manner.”
Following the privatisation of the dockyard, another chapter which seems to have been brought to an abrupt end with the removal of the last director elected by the workforce from the Board of Directors of Bank of Valletta is the once cherished value of workers’ participation.
This step can be construed to represent an ideological shift to the Right in the Nationalist Party, since the PN’s own core principles have included a commitment for participation (“tisħib socjali”)in the work place.
“It’s quite ironic to see these initiatives happening under a Nationalist government,” Baldacchino notes.
Baldacchino still sees merits in having a director elected by and from the workforce in large enterprises.
“Such a measure has been a very effective way to empower workers by giving them a direct stake in the running of the enterprise in which they have a long term interest, unlike some of the shareholders. Moreover, organizations are evolving in this direction of stakeholder involvement. So, removing an elected director from a board is a retrogressive measure, as Prof. Peter Serracino Inglott unequivocally pointed out at a public debate organized by the University’s Centre for Labour Studies on 19 November.”
But: is there a future for worker participation in a more fragmented labour market? Surely the meaning of “participation” has to be redefined...
“Of course. In some cases, ‘worker participation’ will simply mean developing those flexible arrangements that will encourage more individuals (irrespective whether they are women, immigrants, elderly or disabled) to participate effectively, or more effectively, in the labour market.”

Baldacchino remains Director of the University of Malta’s Centre for Labour Studies, as well as a faculty member of its Department of Sociology, on leave of absence.

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