Gozitan employers are being forced to be “uncomforably complicit” with wrongdoing as a result of their severe difficulty in finding employees, with some even changing their hours of operation to accommodate those working two jobs at the same time.

According to SME Chamber CEO Abigail Agius Mamo, key employees who have left the private sector for public sector employment are sometimes only turning up for their Government jobs for a couple of hours to register a presence, before going to their old job and continuing their workday there while raking in two salaries.

“This is happening in broad daylight,” she told podcaster Jon Mallia, having appeared as a guest on his popular show last month.

“Businesses not only can’t find enough employees, but also can’t find adequate ones,” she said as the pair tackled the ongoing shortage of labour.

“It is a problem of quality,” continued Ms Agius Mamo. “Most of the people we are managing to attract are not at the required level.”

Rubbishing the idea this mismatch could simply be a question of technical knowledge that could be sovled through on-the-job training, she said that many of the workers being found are “lacking in more basic things, “like ethics on the jobs, communication skills, and language skills.”

She argued that businesses cannot fill in all the gaps in candidates’ skillset: “They are finding that they need to begin training at a far more elementary level.”

Raising the well-publicised issue of the competition faced by the private sector from Government, which has seemingly hoovered up human resources at every level, Mr Mallia described Gozitan businesses as “desperate”.

“We saw that many people left the private sector to work in the public sector before the last election,” replied Ms Agius Mamo, noting that these included “high level, trusted manager”.

“These were pillars of businesses, key individuals on whom business owners could rely,” she said. “Now they are working at some Government secretariat. I do not know how important that person is for that secretariat, but for the business, they were essential.”

She also expressed a lack of confidence in official statistics, explaining that the proliferation of agencies and sub-contracted work effectively increases the Government-related workforce without showing up as official public sector employment.

Illustrating the extent to which Gozitan businesses have been forced to adapt to address these challenges, the SME Chamber CEO claimed that some have even changed the time of their shifts.

“They have been forced to give employees working with Government the chance to go into their public employment, punch in, spend some time there, and then come to their private sector job at 10am.”

Stunned, Mr Mallia asked her to clarify: “While they are supposed to be doing a day’s work with the Government?”

“That’s right,” came Ms Agius Mamo’s unequivocal reply.

“And everything is happening in daylight?” pressed the host. "That’s daylight robbery...”

“Yes, it’s very bad,” continued Ms Agius Mamo. “We have moved beyond having people who just take on a job with the Government because it is comfortable or because it does not entail that much work. Now, we have people who take up Government employment so that they can do two jobs at the same time.

Reacting to Mr Mallia’s description of the situation as “the burning of public money”, Ms Agius Mamo agreed, and highlighted the “uncomfortable position” businesses find themselves in.

“Businesses are not adapting because they support this wrongdoing,” she said. “They are simply left with no other choice.”

Asked for further comment by WhosWho.mt, Ms Agius Mamo stood by her claims, describing the situation in Gozo as “particularly precarious”.

“Pre-election, many Gozitan business experienced an exodus of workers. Some report even highly valuable and skilled workers leaving for much simpler jobs where there are surely not using their talent.

“These workers would either still work in the private sector and combine the two jobs, or do private work, still having two incomes,” she said.

Highlighting the dependence of the island’s economy on foreign workers, she added that Gozitan businesses report “close to no” applications for vacancies at all levels, from basic to higher level positions, even when these include “a good package, security of employment and career progress”.

Further aggravating the situation, she noted that Gozo Channel, the operator of the ferry between the two islands, also “takes a substantial number of employees from the jobs in the private sector” during summer.