The disparity of paid sick leave entitlement across different industries in Malta needs to be addressed. The general employee is entitled to 10 days of paid sick leave, but this can vary if the employment is regulated by one of the many Wage Regulation Orders (WROs).
At first glance, that sounds right. Employees in hospitals and clinics, for example, are entitled to 30 days of paid sick in addition to 30 days of half-pay sick. Considering that these employees are more prone to getting sick, this is only logical.
However, the logic starts to break down slowly when you realise that several employees are not protected by any additional regulations. For instance, childcare workers are only entitled to the basic 10 days of sick leave, and for the past two years, many workers utilised their 10 days of sick while contracting COVID-19.
Yes, even when getting COVID from their workplace, there is no regulation requiring employers to cover more wages. These employees remained without any paid sick leave for the rest of their year, and therefore had to take unpaid sick leave when getting sick again.
By the lawmakers, for the lawmakers
In recent news, unions have been pushing for the creation of new WROs, particularly for food couriers.
What the unions do not mention is that the employees of trade unions themselves fall under the Professional Office WRO (along with employees in law, accounting and architectural offices, among others), which entitles them to 20 days of paid sick leave and 20 days of half-pay sick leave.
That is three times more paid sick leave than childcare workers, and these professional employees are the second most-favoured industry from a range of over 30 WROs.
Furthermore, a lot of industries do not entitle their employees to paid sick leave immediately on employment.
For instance, construction workers are only entitled to paid sick leave after “completion of 12 months of continuous service”. This means that any employees on shorter-term fixed contracts have no paid sick leave. In several ways, the use of Wage Regulation Order is a hindrance to such employees, rather than a benefit.
Employees are the best resource that Malta offers- Jeremy Mifsud
Wage Regulation Orders without actual wage regulation
When you look at this from a perspective, one notices that the employees in professional offices tend to be the lawmakers in the government or union representatives. The people who say they are fighting for employee rights... fight for themselves instead.
With Malta’s Budget for 2023 being presented tomorrow, we are expecting to hear about additional regulations of minimum wages and sick leave for food couriers. In my opinion, this is not sufficient and leads me to raise the following questions:
How can one trust unions or government entities to be fair when they benefit the most?
Isn’t it time that unions and entities like the Department for Industrial and Employment Relations (DIER) proactively fight against injustice and prevent employees from being abused, or will they only take action when employees decide to strike?
Are there any practices that uphold these regulations, or is action only taken when an employee complains, putting these employees at further risk? What about employees who do not have sufficient knowledge or resources to fight unfair practices?
Will all employees be entitled to paid sick leave from their engagement, or will our laws favour the employers who hire short-term workers?
Will adding additional WROs (for food couriers, and then maybe childcare centres, etc.) after employees suffer injustices be sufficient, or do we need to take action now and at a national level?
It is clear that, although there should be Wage Regulation Orders to regulate industry-specific measures (such as overtime and sick leave), these need to be implemented at a fairer and more consistent level.
WROs should at no point be deemed a disadvantage to the employee (such as the lack of paid sick leave entitlement in the first six or 12 months of service). And perhaps, the most important step is to move our focus away from making more laws to actually enforcing them.
I would love to hear how the DIER and the unions actively seek to protect employees and their rights without the need of an official complaint from an employee or an active membership of a union.
Employees are the best resource that Malta offers, so let’s not put them at risk and let’s push their interests to the forefront.
Jeremy Mifsud is the head of customer experience at Buddy, a payroll and HR software firm.