UHM Voice of the Workers CEO, Josef Vella, has called on the government to use artificial intelligence (AI) and mandatory union membership for low-income workers as part of the New Migration Policy.

This appeal was made when interviewed on Net Television’s program Spotlight. In his remarkes, Vella described the policy as a positive step to address an issue that has been allowed to grow due to what he referred to as an unsustainable economic policy. This policy was based on importing thousands of foreign workers while thousands of Maltese workers in the private sector moved to work for the government.

Josef Vella explained that union membership leads to collective bargaining, which is crucial for systematically improving working conditions while reducing the potential for abuse.

He elaborated that through collective bargaining, minimum-wage workers would no longer be at government’s mercy for a pay rise, as such revisions would occur automatically through collective agreements. Without this system, we would remain in the current situation, whereby every few years, the minimum wage would be revised in arbitrary fashion. On the other hand through collective bargaining wages would by default be above the minimum, and employees would obtain clear pathways for career progression and training opportunities.

In his remarks, the CEO also called for the use of AI in implementing and enforcing this policy, on the same lines the successful implementation of this technology to boost tax collection.