Centre for Labour Studies UM

Bachelor in Occupational Health and Safety (Hons) students toured the Occupational Health and Safety Authority (OHSA) offices, whilst being introduced to the work of the Authority, its personnel, and its structure. The CLS would like to thank the OHSA for opening its doors and providing our students with this interesting opportunity. 

As the representative of the Malta Women's Lobby, Prof. Anna Borg attended the European Women's Lobby Board meeting this weekend in Brussels. These gatherings underscore the fact that the fight for women's rights is an ongoing, relentless battle, especially in a world where funds are increasingly being diverted to defense and conflict, rather than to champion the social causes that can improve the lives of all citizens. 

Dr Luke Fiorini participated in the Malta Employers' Association (MEA) National Roundtable Forum entitled, ‘Adapting our Labour Market to an Ageing Population’. Dr Fiorini highlighted how improved occupational health and wellbeing will make it possible for more workers to work into older age. He noted that Malta needs to continue investing in specialised holistic occupational health services that can help organisations to adapt the workplace to older workers' needs and to assist with their rehabilitation, when needed.

Occupational health and safety students attended a talk about the Malta Occupational Safety and Health Practitioners Association (MOSHPA). The talk was delivered by CLS Bachelor in Occupational Health and Safety (Hons) alumnus, Brian Fenech.

Welcoming our new students to the Bachelor in Work and Human Resources course 💻 #workandhumanresources #humanresourcescourse #studyatuom #universityofmalta #bachelorsdegree

Welcoming our new students to the Bachelor in Occupational Health and safety course ⛑️ #healthandsafety #degree #studyatuom #HealthAndSafetyCourse #universityofmalta

The Centre for Labour Studies (CLS), in collaboration with the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), hosted an international event that brought together European experts in workers' participation. Members of the ETUI's Worker Participation Europe (WPE) Network gathered in Malta to gain insights into the local context. On the topic of trade unions, Professor Godfrey Baldacchino delivered a talk on industrial relations and social dialogue in Malta. Following this, Dr Luke Fiorini and Professor Manwel Debono presented findings from a CLS research project exploring attitudes toward trade unions in Malta. Focusing on migrant workers, Professor Anna Borg and Dr Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone presented CLS research on female third-country national workers in Malta. This was followed by a talk from Professor Manwel Debono on the role of trade unions in protecting migrant workers across Europe. In the final session, Dr Marylin Formosa provided an insightful presentation on letterbox and offshore companies operating in Malta. The ETUI’s Dr Aline Hoffmann chaired the session. Dr Luke Fiorini represents Malta on the ETUI’s WPE Network.

Centre for Labour Studies RSO Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone delivered a presentation with her co-author, Lena Wånggren, at the AtGender Conference 'Gender Studies and the Precarious Labour of Making a Difference', in Utrecht this past weekend. Their presentation was called 'Gendered and intersectional precarity in the marketised university', and shared seven years of collaborative feminist work, providing a snapshot of the experiences of a generation of teachers and researchers for whom insecurity and ill health is the norm. It demonstrated how contractual precarity invades all areas of life, threatening feminist knowledges and careers. Crucially, contractual precarity has specific intersectional gendered and racialised impacts, with women and/or people of colour more likely to be employed on such insecure contracts, and more acutely impacted. Combining employment statistics with qualitative data from interviews with precariously employed workers in the UK, the paper shared experiences of insecure work but also strategies of resistance, including community-building and trade union organising.

Welcoming students to the launch of our new Master of Science in Work and Organisational Behaviour (by Research) course. Our students will focus on studies related to work, human resources and occupational health and safety. Stay tuned for their upcoming research! 🤩