/library/oar/handle/123456789/347 2025-11-10T21:12:28Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/138867 Title: Fairforward : shaping inclusive workplaces across Europe : national focus group report Abstract: This report on the inclusion of disadvantaged groups within the labor market is compiled in the context of the EU funded ‘Fairforward: Shaping Inclusive Workplaces Across Europe’ project being led by the General Workers Union, Malta in collaboration with other workers’ organisations across Europe. The project is aimed at contributing towards raised awareness of workers organizations of the EU’s anti-discrimination directives and the implementation status in participant countries; strengthening capabilities of workers organizations to assist workers from vulnerable groups through collective bargaining; enhancing cooperation of workers organizations for the development of measures to improve the status of vulnerable workers, and to increase awareness of the problems faced by these target populations. This report highlights the findings arising from the research component of the project based on a focus group discussion with a wide representation of workers at risk of discrimination, regarding their i) overall general employment experiences, ii) challenges and barriers, and iii) needs and requirements for accessing quality employment and career progression within the Maltese labour market. The focus group findings reveal a pervasive challenge for certain categories of workers in accessing and progressing within the labour market due to widespread prejudice, direct and indirect discrimination, poor working conditions, and lack of effective policy and legislative monitoring and enforcement. These experiences inform recommendations and suggestions for the improved inclusion of disadvantaged workers within the Maltese labour market in terms of enhanced awareness and understanding, more optimally targeted and effective service provision, legislative and policy reform, and improved implementation, monitoring and enforcement of existing legislative and policy frameworks. A committed comprehensive and multifaceted approach addressing both personal and structural disadvantage is necessary to address prevalent forms of direct and indirect discrimination. Moreover, combating discrimination within the labour market needs to be addressed in collaboration with wider equality struggles on all grounds of discrimination as well as within the context of broader challenges for the protection of workers’ rights, where human rights and wellbeing supersede macro-economic interests. 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/138866 Title: Fairforward : shaping inclusive workplaces across Europe : legal framework comparative analysis report Abstract: This report, forming part of the ‘Fairforward: Shaping Inclusive Workplaces across Europe’ project, presents a comparative analysis of the anti-discrimination employment legal frameworks at the European Union level—specifically Directives 2000/78/EC and 2000/43/EC—and the main equality and legislative frameworks at the national level. The analysis shows strong national alignment with EU frameworks, with Malta having effectively transposed all EU minimum standards on age, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation, and racial/ethnic origin. Malta’s legislative mechanisms often go beyond EU safeguards, offering broader protections. Nonetheless, persistent challenges affect disadvantaged groups in the Maltese labour market. The report recommends stronger positive action, better enforcement and access to justice, transparency in migrant worker procedures, and tackling intersectional discrimination. 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/138807 Title: Policing SOGIE hate crime in a liberal state : the case of Malta Authors: Vella, Mary Grace Abstract: Malta ranks as the most LGBTIQ+ friendly country in Europe with same-sex marriage, adoption, and gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics rights. In recent years, the Malta Police Force has undergone various emancipatory transformations despite persistent cisheteropatriarchal traits. Within this liberal institutional context, while Malta records one of the lowest rates of SOGIE physical or sexual victimization across the EU27, LGBTIQ+ people experience a higher share of harassment and online hatred. Moreover, reporting rates of violence and harassment, particularly to law enforcement remains significantly low. In this context, the chapter examines the significance of queering policing to make it more embracing of diversity and effective in dealing with SOGIE hate crime. 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/137991 Title: Crime families in the Maltese Islands : a spatial perspective Authors: Formosa Pace, Janice Abstract: This study explores the potential role of spatial factors as crime promoters to intergenerational continuity of offending in the Maltese Islands . The intergenerational dataset created for the Formosa Pace 2014 study, covering incarcerations between 1950 and 2010 is used to explore such phenomena. The focus here is on the residential location of individuals belonging to the intergenerational cohort using street level analysis to explore potential risks linked to spatial proximity. A spatial analysis is employed to examine the crime families’ residential zones vis-a-vis the offender and poverty hotspots identified in the Formosa 2007 study. This explores further the relationship between the location of crime families and the socio-demographic factors in communities that could serve as “activity fields” for crime continuity. Crime runs and concentrates in a relatively small number of Maltese families across 2 to 5 generations, wherein family members act as crime role models. Crime continuity is accommodated by a number of crime promoters that present themselves in the activity field. These include geographical proximity, residing in intersecting poverty and offender hotspots as well as exposure to crime role models within the family and the community. Thus, a series of crime promoters act as direct or indirect transmission risks to crime continuity wherein communities such as Valletta, Bormla and Santa Lucija allow for transgenerational transmission. 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z