Discrepancy between women in education and workforce is worrying - Centre for Labour Studies director

Despite the fact that, on average, women in Malta and Europe are better educated than men, fewer women occupy high, managerial positions in local companies throughout all sectors.

The director of the Centre for Labour Studies at the University of Malta, Anna Borg, spoke about this worrying discrepancy between women in education and females in employment, especially in well-paid posts. Dr Borg was addressing a seminar organised by UĦM Voice of the Workers on the contribution of worker organisations to the EU pillar of social rights.

Dr Borg also spoke about how the public sector has made giant strides in family-friendly measures, especially when compared to the private sector. She said that workers should not all be put in one basket since the realities that exist out there would be forgotten. The workers who need to be protected most are those who do not form part of a union and do not have a voice to speak about inequalities, such as gender, racial and income inequalities. “We should use the social pillars to eliminate these inequalities,” she added.

Looking at the past seven years, she said, a decrease of 1.4 percentage points was witnessed in relation to the minimum wage. However, she added that an agreement for an €8 increase over three years only amounted to 20 cents per hour, so more needed to be done in this area.

As for racial inequalities, she said that one in every five workers in Malta is a foreigner. She said that non-EU migrants face a number of obstacles. She said the unions needed to ask themselves how such workers can be helped. She said that the private sector had stayed away from introducing certain family-friendly measures, something the unions also needed to address.