Efforts to regulate the bourgeoning delivery industry have floundered as new guidelines on couriers’ payment go unenforced, creating an unlevel playing field for companies in the sector.

Malta has long suffered from lack of enforcement. From planning to construction to waste disposal, environmental regulations are often broken at will, with an ineffective fine structure often making continuing illegalities more worth offenders’ time than compliance.

Now, much the same is happening to courier companies, where an outdated payment legislative framework was at long last updated only for it to be widely ignored by most players in the sector, with authorities nowhere to be seen.

“Malta is losing millions in tax revenues,” says Tomas Mikalauskas, CEO of RecruitGiant, the largest fleet operator in the country.

RecruitGiant CEO Tomas Mikalauskas

RecruitGiant is the only player to have so far complied with the new guidelines, with drivers now paid per completed task, benefitting from overtime, and paying tax and national insurance.

This results in a higher wage cost for the company, but in a lower take home wage for the drivers, who are leaving the company in droves to work for competitors paying a nominal minimum wage with anything above that coming in undeclared cash payments.

“This is ridiculous, unfair, and uncompetitive,” argues Mr Mikalauskas. “Putting it bluntly, obeying the law gets you punished in this country.”

He is calling on the Government to enforce its own rules and ensure that the frameworks it introduces are backed up with the will to ensure they are implemented.

“We do not want any preferential treatment. We want to compete on a level playing field in a free, open, and fair market with clear rules. As it stands, the companies breaking the law are the ones with a competitive advantage. It’s about laying down basic ground rules and starting from the same spot.”

He confirmed media characterisations of the sector as a “wild west”, and argued that financially, it makes more sense to disregard the law and pay any fines that may come as a consequence.

“It is almost impossible to find workers,” he says, pointing out that the Maltese High Commission in India, which is also responsible for Nepal, needs to do more to process visa applications. “We invest over €1000 in bringing over each employee, and a few weeks later it’s all down the drain as they join a competitor paying under the table.”

Mr Mikalauskas put the blame squarely on Government.

“This is like a classroom. If the teacher is not on board, you cannot expect students to take the lead. We are trying to do so but it makes no business sense.”

He insists that it is Government, Maltese society, and drivers themselves who stand to benefit from proper enforcement, noting that million in payments go undeclared and untaxed in the current situation.

Bringing up two couriers killed in road accidents in recent weeks, Mr Mikalaukas says that it is useless to talk about insurance or other benefits when the basic payment structure is still in question.

“People need to be aware just how far we are from the ideal. If these workers were Maltese, we would see immediate change, especially now during an election,” he concluded.

“But because they are foreign and have no vote, they are forgotten.”