Malta’s implementation of the European Union’s Work-Life Balance directive is full of significant defects with the government giving families the least possible rights while putting the financial burden on employers, the Nationalist Party said on Tuesday.
Legal notice 201 of 2022, amending the Employment and Industrial Relations Act, came into effect on Tuesday, transposing the EU's Work-Life Balance Directive into national law.
The changes are essentially extending paid paternity leave to 10 days (from the previous one), introducing partially paid parental leave (two months of the current four-month leave will be paid at sick-leave rate) and granting parents the right to request flexible hours.
Carers get five days of unpaid additional leave a year to support a sick relative.
The legal changes were introduced by the EU two years ago but member states had until August 2022 to pass them into law.
Malta did so at the last instance and has opted to introduce the minimum permissible into local law.
Lobbyists last months lashed out at the government, saying that with the exception of the introduction of 10 days paternity leave, the Maltese government's implementation of the EU's new rules will increase the caring gap between women and men.
They complained that women’s organisations, parents who care for children with a disability, fathers’ lobby groups and civil society were excluded from the conversation in the run-up to the transposition of this law.
The Work-Life Balance directive was negotiated at EU level by PN MEP David Casa.
PN to consult with stakeholders
In its statement, the PN noted that the legal notice introducing the changes was published while parliament was in its summer recess, meaning it could not be debated or scrutinised by MPs.
The government, it noted, had given Maltese families the least possible benefits and placed the financial burden of the measures being introduced on employers.
The PN said it would be consulting with stakeholders before moving amendments to the legal notice once Parliament resumes in October.
It said it also wants to ensure clarity and legal certainty for employers, who ended up requesting legal advice to try to understand "the vague and useless statements" made by the government, it said.
In particular, the PN believed there are unnecessary restrictions on paternal and parental leave and wants to see flexibility in view of the different realities families may face.
The party also saw the directive as an investment in families and insisted that the burden of measures should be carried by the state.
It said it will also be exploring the possibility for families whose children were born before August 2 to also benefit from the measures as it seemed that those whose children were born until Monday had been excluded from the notice.
The PN insisted that the implementation of the directive was an opportunity for the development of an effective framework of family rights. Although already a major step forward, its hasty implementation by the Maltese government could endanger some of its most important aims.
The directive, the PN said, is an opportunity to improve families’ quality of life, and the opportunities for working mothers and to reduce the differences among sexes in employment, wages, pensions and in family care and child rearing.