Cachia Caruana fires Brussels whistleblower

MaltaToday exclusively reports that the office of Malta’s permanent representative to the EU, Richard Cachia Caruana, has been flagged by the Belgian ministry for employment over its irregular labour practices, denial of overtime and irregular salary payments to Belgian nationals.

In correspondence exclusively seen by MaltaToday, the director-general of the Belgian federal service of employment (FSE) has called on the Belgian kingdom’s chief of protocol, Ambassador Peter Martin, to bring the Permanent Representation in line with Belgian and EU law.

“I ask you to alert this employer of the necessity, imposed upon him by international conventions, of scrupulously following Belgian labour laws,” FSE director Michel Aseglio tells Martin, after listing a series of irregular practices concerning a former Dar Malta employee.

The employee, a chauffeur at the representation, was fired on 4 March 2011after admitting to having spoken to Belgian newspaper Le Soir over the permanent representation’s irregular labour practices.

Specifically, the representation paid the driver a gross salary of some €1,200, deducted all taxation and social security contributions; but then added an extra €250-€350 allowance to top up his net salary – not as an extra benefit, but to reach the salary level he was entitled to in his employment contracts.

But the FSE told the Belgian chief of protocol that the top-up was being paid “in cash and undeclared” to taxation authorities, as evidenced by the chauffeur’s annual tax return.

Additionally, the chauffeur and other former employees have told MaltaToday the smaller gross salaries have resulted in lower pension contributions, because it entitled them to smaller sickness and unemployment benefits (65% and 60% respectively of the gross).

This fact alone has affected the living conditions of a former secretary who had been employed at the Maltese embassy to Belgiumfor 19 years. She claims she receives an €800 sickness pension today instead of an estimated €1,200 she could have received had she been paid according to the law.

The chauffeur, employed since 2005, had exposed the permanent representation’s illegal employment practices to the Belgian press, which published the embarrassing revelations on 4 February.

A week later, the chauffeur confronted the representation’s head of administration over his irregular salary slips, and admitted that he had spoken to the press.

In what puts paid to the Maltese government’s effort at enacting a Whistleblowers Act as part of a major transparency drive, the Belgian whistleblower was served with two warnings in just three days (15 and 17 February), before being given a week off and finally sent a termination letter.

In its termination letter to the national employment office Onem, the representation claimed it had terminated the driver’s employment over “loss of confidence” and incorrectly declared he was receiving €2,000 a month – when in fact his monthly salary was €1,629.

And his employment was also stopped just ten days shy of his fifth year in employment – which meant that, as per Belgian law, they had to pay him three months’ severance payment instead of six months.

In comments to MaltaToday, Permanent Representative Richard Cachia Caruana says that measures to bring the salaries and working conditions of LEPs in line with Belgian law started in 2006 on his instructions. “The phasing-out of these elements are now in line with Belgian law,” a spokesperson told this newspaper.