PN reiterates call for full year of parental leave
Labour's Ramona Attard is trying to make this proposal her own - Alex Borg
PN leader Alex Borg has urged the government to back its proposal to extend parental leave to a full year, so that parents can spend more time with their children.
Borg made his appeal as he observed that the government had come round to concerns expressed earlier by the PN about Malta's low birthrate.
The low birthrate was a serious challenge for the country, Borg said in a message on social media.
" This is not just a statistic on paper. It is a clear sign of the difficult realities lived by thousands of young people and Maltese families who are trying to buy a home, who want to start a life together, but who hit a wall because of high prices, unaffordable loans, long working days and ever-rising daily expenses."
"Many of us are living to work, instead of working to live," he said.
He recalled that at the beginning of this year the PN proposed a full year of paid leave for new parents – combining maternity and parental leave.
"It is positive that the government has finally recognised – and agreed with the PN – that there is a problem. It is also positive that (Labour MP) Ramona Attard has acknowledged that what the PN proposed eight months ago – namely that new parents be given a full year of paid leave – is a sound proposal, to the extent that she tried to make it her own," Borg said.
He therefore urged them to back the PN's proposal so that parents could spend more time with their children.
Earlier this month Archbishop Charles Scicluna warned that Malta was facing “ethnic extinction” due to its low birth rate.
In February, academic Prof Anna Borg said the Maltese population could shrink by half in the next 45 years unless the country significantly improved its work-life balance.
Also in February, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana said the country needed to take urgent, drastic and expensive action to reverse the worrying downward trajectory of its native population numbers.
Last week Ramona Attard called for a discussion on whether to increase maternity leave amid concerns over Malta's low fertility rate.