It has been an honour to successfully negotiate the most significant legislative step for economic gender equality in the last decade. The Work-Life Balance Directive takes efforts to combat gender inequality up several notches. In brief, it extends rights for workers with children that will deliver results for their personal lives, for their professional lives and for the economic benefit of their employers and the nation.

The benefits of a healthy work-life balance are significant and varied.

Economically-speaking, Nordic countries that implanted work-life balance measures in the mid-1960s saw economic growth boosted by up to 20 per cent thanks to the inclusion of women in the workforce who were able to maintain their employment after giving birth.

In the directive, this is tackled in a deliberate, multifaceted way by greatly encouraging the involvement of the second parent in child-raising. By empowering both parents to share domestic responsibilities, we can improve family life and boost the economy by raising flexible employment.

Families will be happier and better-off and workers more productive. It will also work to actively reduce the employment pay gap in Malta. Since joining the EU, this has been our most shameful statistic, with a gap of over 20 percentage points before the pandemic.

But our work is not over yet.  Negotiating the directive to raise the minimum standards for work-life measures across the EU was the first step. The second was done by the PN. Having studied the avenues for transposition, we are pleased to present our plan to extend these rights even further.

The PN in government will guarantee the delivery of even more benefits ­for Maltese families, thanks to a series of policies announced last week.

Currently, the situation with postnatal leave is among the most meagre in Europe. Maltese law only allows for one day of leave for fathers. EU law will soon guarantee 10 days of paid paternal leave.

A PN government will deliver a whole three weeks of fully-compensated leave for fathers.

This will not only allow fathers to participate in what can be one of the most fulfilling moments in life but it also permits both parents to better share caring responsibilities in addition to their work lives. Studies indicate that, if offered to them, fathers will take paternal leave. When that happens, the domestic workload of mothers is alleviated, allowing them to keep their jobs and sustain a stream of income.

To bolster this aim even further, a PN government will pay for the first two of each of the four months’ parental leave, which can be taken by either parent up until their child is eight years old. Families can enjoy this leave to raise healthier, happier children but without adversely impacting SMEs that might employ them.

The benefits of a healthy work-life balance are significant and varied. Families will be happier and better-off and workers more productive- David Casa

For this reason, it will be a PN government that will pay their salaries for the first eight combined weeks of their leave. Self-employed parents will also enjoy the benefits of the PN’s work-life balance plan.

While parents are taking their maternal, paternal, or parental leave, the PN is proposing to allow workers the optional benefit of ‘keeping in touch’ with meetings, training sessions or other work commitments so as to keep up-to-date with work policies, systems, and developments. This is beneficial for both employees and employers who, in the long run, save the time, money and effort of having to extensively retrain employees after prolonged absences.

Rather than having to choose between employment or children, both can be balanced through more flexible measures. A PN government will enshrine the right to ask for more flexible work arrangements. This will sanction a stream of open communication between employers and employees.

The pandemic has taught us that some work need not be done strictly from a particular desk during strict hours. With the right to negotiate, employees may secure the ability to work more flexible hours remotely. This way, the work that needs to be done gets done without compromising on the ability to care for loved ones.

We know from empirical evidence that open communication and flexible work-life measures are a characteristic of good management, which is a huge factor in job satisfaction and productivity. This is why the right to request flexible arrangements is extended not just to parents  but to all workers.

We listened to businesses’ concerns, too. Companies that employed work-life balance measures actually found no disproportionate use of their resources to implement flexible measures. In reality, it required communication which rendered positive results in the absolute majority of cases. As for leave, the PN will alleviate the strain on SMEs by subsiding workers’ pay when on leave.

This will, in effect, be a direct investment in families and the broader economy.

Arguments for an enhanced work-life balance are hard to dispute. Economic studies consistently show the benefit on the economy, a benefit that we cannot neglect as we emerge out of the pandemic. Families are given more room to manoeuvre, which results in a higher overall quality of life and more job satisfaction.

Just as we have done with our plan for a better work-life balance, I promise to continue working to promote the social rights of our workers and families, alongside my colleagues in the PN, and look forward to delivering more rights for a better life for all Maltese and European citizens.

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