GWU proposes employment passport to weed out abuse in tourism industry

An “employment passport” could help weed out precarious work and other problems in the hospitality industry, General Workers Union General Secretary Josef Bugeja said today.

Addressing a press conference, Mr Bugeja said the "passport" would be a virtual curriculum vitae which tracked all the places a person worked at in the tourism industry.

Employers who offered poor working conditions would be tagged in an online name and shame system.

Mr Bugeja said the union had worked on the idea some 12 years ago as part of a Europe-wide project which was eventually scrapped.

He was now calling on the government to hold a meeting with the union and other stakeholders, such as the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, to discuss a pilot project on the passport.

Mr Bugeja said many in the tourism industry did not believe it offered a career but only one-off jobs as a stepping stone into a different industry. The passport would be a detailed skills and experience card which could help in career advancement, he said.

“There is so much more to the industry than simple jobs. Look at waiters for instance, there are so many different types of waiters working in venues from small cafés to...