5 - 11 April 2001

Construction industry in urgent need of human resources

by Blanche Gatt

Despite numerous projects in the pipeline worth at least Lm200m a year, the construction industry is worried whether, with the human resources available, their members will actually be in a position to carry out the contracts they are eventually awarded.
In an interview with The Malta Business Weekly, George Xuereb, President of the Federation of Building Contractors and Civil Engineers (FOBC), said although the local construction industry was picking up, the Federation doubted whether the manpower was available.
The FOBC and the ETC recently carried out an intensive exercise to evaluate the people currently registering for employment with the construction industry. Of the 590 people on this list only 161 were deemed possibly eligible for employment in the construction industry.
“These results did not surprise us at all,” said Mr Xuereb. “We knew all along that few of these 590 people are interested in working in the construction industry. And it still remains to be seen whether the 161 deemed eligible will actually accept employment when they are sent for.”
The study was conducted to prove that the construction industry was unable to meet its human resources needs from the local employment pool, and the need to bring in foreign workers.
“Our members had sent the Department of Citizenship and Expatriate Affairs 129 applications for work permits to be extended or granted. We got no response, though most of these were submitted as long ago as November. The reason we were given was these 590 people were registering at ETC. This despite the fact that ETC supported our claim that these people were not suitable or skilled in the trades required.”
Mr Xuereb insists the construction industry needs the influx of foreign workers urgently. “For us this is an immediate need. “We need these specialised construction tradesmen in order to complete works in hand within the stipulated period. Some of us are incurring heavy penalties because we can’t complete works. However, if all the major projects and infrastructural works planned by government materialise, and the ones already started begin to move at a faster pace, then we will find that we definitely have no skilled labour on the island.
The study also exposed a lot more than the fact that certain skilled workers are needed. “The fact that more than one in three did not even bother to turn up for their interview with the board shows us that many are abusing the right to register for employment. It is obvious that these are working somewhere else. And of course, we knew that this was happening. However, they are not working with any of the 29 members of the FOBC. This we do know. So they must either be working with some small contractor or on their own.”
Benefits fraud is a crime against each and every responsible tax-payer on the island. But, if the FOBC’s interpretation of the situation is correct, then in this case at least, benefit fraud is costing more than the taxpayer’s money. It is disabling one of Malta’s largest industries, and hindering the completion of projects that would bring a diverse range of benefits and advantages if they were finished, a point Mr Xuereb firmly agrees on.