Employment Legislative Framework

The Maltese legislative framework regulating the conditions of employment of employees is primarily comprised of the Employment and Industrial Relations Act (Chapter 452 of the Laws of Malta) and various adjacent regulations and national standard orders.

The said legislative framework is supplemented by various sectoral regulation orders intended to regulate the conditions of employment of specific sectors or classes of employees. Sectors regulated by these orders include woodworks, canning, electronics, private schools, printing and publishing, agriculture, food manufacture, travel or insurance or estate agency, private security services, private cleaning services, and several other sectors.

Each sectoral regulation order prescribes specific employment conditions for employees in their respective sector, including hours of work, minimum wage, overtime rates, minimum daily and weekly rest, holidays and vacation leave, sick leave and other specific leave entitlements.

The conditions of employment prescribed in a national standard order or in a sectoral regulation order, or those which are required to be observed by or under the Employment and Industrial Relations Act, are considered to be the recognised conditions of employment for the employees concerned.

An employer should not only consider the statutory rights and entitlements and relative employment terms prescribed by the Employment and Industrial Relations Act (and regulations made thereunder) in favour of all employees in general but should also consider whether any specific sectoral regulation order is applicable to its employees, as this will affect the nature of the employment terms which must be included in each employment contract.

The law protects employees in this respect by stating that if an employment contract provides for any conditions of employment that are less favourable to an employee than those specified under the Employment and Industrial Relations Act (Chapter 452 of the laws of Malta), any national standard order or any sectoral regulation order, only those provisions that are more favourable to the employee are considered as being legally valid and enforceable. Conditions in the contract of employment which are less favourable to the employee than those established by law or regulations shall not be enforceable and such conditions in the contract of employment shall be replaced by those conditions specified under the laws.

Failure by an employer to fully appreciate and understand the scope and extent of the applicable employment legislative and regulatory framework may have serious consequences on the employer. Apart from exposing the employer to claims before the Industrial Tribunal, non-observance by an employer of any conditions of employment that are established by the Employment and Industrial Relations Act or any regulations made thereunder, any national standard order or any sectoral regulation order, is deemed to be a criminal offence under the Employment and Industrial Relations Act.