It’s Workers’ Day! We need it more than ever! Let’s just look at two issues. The number of tragic incidents at places of work and low-paid Gig workers. These are enough to shake our conscience. Mark Laurence Zammit’s write-up in last Monday’s Times of Malta was interesting and appropriate. The CEO of an employment company said “it is impossible to employ a food delivery driver legally”. What are the authorities concerned doing? The fact that “several drivers quit within a month” is not a sign of laziness but a strong indicator that wages are low and working conditions bad. Simple economics tell us that if the “supply” of workers is low, the solution lies in better wages and conditions of work, no? The Department for Industrial and Employment Relations carried an inquiry about the food delivery business. Has the result been kept under wraps? In whose interest? Zammit reported that the inquiry found that food couriers were not getting enough rest, that their employers were deducting money from their first salary to pay for their attire and work equipment. It also found that the drivers’ employment contracts were “not in line with the Employment and Industrial Relations Act”.