Condemnation is worth little without action
We were equally shocked and outraged at the shocking story which we reported on Tuesday, wherein an injured migrant worker was found on a pavement in Mellieħa.
The worker – a 32-year-old from Ghana – was allegedly dumped there by his boss, who had apparently told him that he would be taking him to hospital for treatment after he fell two storeys at the construction site he was working on.
However, instead of taking him to hospital, the said boss left the worker on a pavement – apparently fearful because the man had no work permit.
While a contractor is being questioned by police in connection with this – we will limit ourselves from commenting upon the incident itself, even for legal reasons given that investigations are ongoing.
What we will comment on instead are the reactions to this incident.
Rightly, these were of mass condemnation – although we did see the usual far-right suspects in our comments section placing the blame at the feet of the migrant worker for having the gall of being in the country in the first place.
Many associations and unions spoke out over the incident: the Malta Employers’ Association, the Chamber of Commerce, the Malta Developers Association, the General Workers’ Union, and the Chamber of Architects and Civil Engineers are amongst those.
All offered their condemnation, all said that the matter has to be investigated and the culprit has to be brought to justice, and all called on the necessary stakeholders to take action against similar things happening.
And when this all dies down, all will likely keep following the same practices that they did before this incident.
It took the MDA almost 24 hours to issue their reactionary statement – and in it they seemed more concerned with disassociating themselves with the contractor than anything else.
Let’s be real here. Precarious work ( prekarjat, as it would be better known in Maltese) has long been around. It is apparent to anyone with a pair of eyes who drives through Marsa junction in the morning and sees people sitting on the curb waiting for the next enterprising contractor to pick them up for a day’s work paid at far below the minimum wage rate.
But it took a truly shocking and disgusting incident for most of these associations to wake up and realise that they should probably make a public statement about the matter.
Of course, one will say that it’s not the first time that many of these associations and unions have spoken out against precarious work and against ‘cowboy’ contractors who seemingly think that they have a free hand to do as they please – but what tangible results has that led to?
In the absence of change from above – which has also been startlingly lacking – then change must come from the people involved themselves.
For instance, why can’t developers blacklist these so-called ‘cowboy’ contractors when negligence emerges? Why don’t architects refuse to work with contractors who refuse to follow basic safety practices and working practices? We can ask such questions of each profession. We must also ask such questions of the government. The Prime Minister was right in condemning the incident and in saying that such attitudes are not tolerable. But what is he and his government going to do about it?
We’ve heard so much talk about reforms to this, and reforms to that – and yet nothing changes.
If there was ever the need for a wake-up call – this was it. Action needs to be taken to ensure that such things are not repeated, and it needs to be taken by everyone.
Without action, all of this condemnation is little more than crass virtue signalling.