Copyright maltatoday
The Court of Magistrates, presided by Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech, has fined a Mellieħa beach stall operator €2,500 after finding him guilty of employing his 14-year-old son in breach of employment laws. The court heard how officials from Jobsplus carried out an inspection at a watersports kiosk on Għadira Bay in August 2024, observing the boy “in the sea arranging dinghies and preparing them for rental.” The inspectors, who had watched the stall for roughly ten minutes before intervening, reported that the boy confirmed he worked there when questioned. When approached for the company’s VAT number, the boy was unable to provide one and instead phoned his father, who arrived a few minutes later claiming his son was “just helping.” Officials from both the Department of Education and the Department for Industrial and Employment Relations confirmed that no authorisation had been granted for the boy to work, since Maltese law expressly forbids employment below the age of 15. During proceedings, the defence insisted that the child had merely been keeping an eye on the stall while his father stepped away “for two or three minutes.” The court, however, described the testimony given by both father and son as full of contradictions and untruths, noting that inspectors had been observing the minor for at least ten minutes prior to the father’s arrival. The magistrate was particularly scathing about what she described as an attempt to mislead the court. “The boy was caught in a big lie” the judgment stated, adding that it was “truly shameful” that a child had been “compelled to lie under oath to help his father evade a fine.” The court dismissed as “ridiculous” the father’s claim that Mellieħa beach remains empty until noon, calling it “an insult to the court’s intelligence.” Photographs produced in evidence showed the area was already bustling at 11am on the day in question. Finding the charge proven beyond reasonable doubt, the court convicted the man of employing a minor of compulsory school age under Article 42 of the Employment and Training Services Act, Chapter 594 of the Laws of Malta, and imposed a fine of €2,500. The magistrate stopped short of suspending the defendant’s commercial licence. In her concluding remarks, the magistrate issued a strong recommendation that Jobsplus inspectors be equipped with body cameras to ensure more accurate and transparent documentation during inspections. The court further ordered that a copy of the judgment be sent to the Commissioner of Police to consider whether perjury charges should be brought against the father and son, and also to the Minister for the Interior, Security and Work, the Parliamentary Secretary for Social Dialogue, and the CEO of Jobsplus for policy review.
