Easily manage employment in Malta

Employees working a 40-hour week are entitled to 192 working hours (24 working days) off, plus 8 hours for every public holiday that falls on a weekend. The 192-hour base rate equals 24 days, calculated by 8 hours of work daily.For example, for 2021 employees are guaranteed 216 working hours off plus 24 (8 working hours * 3) hours to cover for 3 public holidays that fall on weekends.However, if the employee works below an average of eight hours daily, the basic holiday entitlement can be calculated by multiplying the number of working hours the employee puts in daily by 24.Employees who’ve worked with an employer for less than a year will be entitled to paid holiday that’s equivalent to the length of time they’ve worked.

Employees are entitled to take the 14 national holidays off, with full pay. And should a national holiday fall on a rest day, an employee will be entitled to 8 working hours (i.e., 1 working day) off work as compensation.

The Maltese social security office handles a lot of the financial obligation for employees’ sickness benefits.As a principle, an employer can either:- pay an ailing employee the normal gross wage for the first three days of the illness, and then pay the gross wage, less the sickness benefit issued by the government, or- pay the employee in full and get refunds from the employee for the sickness benefits paid to the employee by the social security officeIn essence, the social security office pays a sickness stipend while the employee pays the difference between that amount and the employee’s normal wages.Sickness benefit entitlements can be paid for up to 156 days and may be extended to 468 days in 2 years as per the Medical Board’s decision.

Pregnant or postpartum employees are entitled to 14 weeks of leave, with a maternity benefit of €97.84 per week (roughly €391.36 per month) paid by the employer.After the first 14 weeks, the employee draws €179.33 weekly as a maternity leave benefit from the government over the next 4 weeks.

There are currently no provisions in the Maltese labour law regarding paternity leave. However, many global employers provide their own supplementary benefits including parental leave policies to support partners.