Leave Entitlement

Maltese law sets out various leave entitlements attaching to employees. The following is an overview of the general minimum statutory leave entitlements that are currently available to employees.

Annual Leave

Each employee working a 40-hour working week, and an eight-hour working day, is entitled to paid annual leave equivalent in hours to four weeks and thirty two hours (192 hours).

In the case of full-time employees, where a national or public holiday in Malta falls on a Saturday, Sunday or weekly day of rest to which an employee is entitled, such employee shall be entitled to an additional day of vacation leave during that same calendar year in respect of each such national or public holiday in Malta.

In cases where the average weekly working time, calculated on the basis of a reference period of seventeen weeks, is below or exceeds forty hours per week, the annual leave entitlement in hours must be adjusted accordingly. The average weekly working time must be calculated on the normal hours of work of the employee and may not include overtime hours.

Fifty per cent or less of the annual leave entitlement, may, by mutual agreement between the employer and the employee, be carried over once to the next calendar year. Such vacation leave carried forward from the previous year will be utilised first, and may not be carried forward again.

Urgent Family Leave

As a minimum, all employees are entitled to time off from work on grounds of force majeure (an unforeseeable circumstance beyond the employee’s control) for urgent family reasons in cases of sickness or accident, making the employee immediately indispensable.

Such circumstances include:

• accidents to members of the immediate family of the employee;
• the sudden illness or sickness of any member of the immediate family of the employee requiring the employee’s assistance or the presence; and
• the presence during births and deaths of members of the employee’s immediate family.

The employer is bound to grant an employee a minimum total of fifteen hours with pay per year as urgent family leave. The total number of hours used up by the employee for urgent family reasons is deducted from the annual leave entitlement of the employee.

The employer is entitled to establish the maximum number of hours of time off an employee may take from work in each particular case, save that the minimum time should not be less than one hour per case unless there is the specific agreement of the employee.

Maternity Leave

A pregnant employee may apply for maternity leave for an uninterrupted period of eighteen weeks, and must be availed of as follows:

• six weeks of the maternity leave entitlement that must be taken immediately after the date of confinement (i.e. the date of the delivery of the child);
• four weeks of maternity leave to be availed of immediately before the expected date of confinement, unless agreed otherwise between the employer and the employee;
• the remaining balance of entitlement to be availed of, in whole or in part, taken either immediately before or immediately after the above periods, as the employee may request.

If the employee is unable to benefit from her maternity leave entitlement before the date of confinement, such remaining balance of entitlement may be availed of after confinement.

The employee has to notify her employer in writing of the date when she intends to avail herself of such entitlement at least four weeks before its commencement, in so far as is reasonably practicable.

Payment during maternity leave

An employee on maternity leave shall be entitled to the first fourteen weeks of maternity leave with full wages, but if the employee chooses to make use of any additional maternity leave beyond the fourteen weeks, the employer shall not be obliged to pay any wages for those extra weeks of maternity. This shall not prejudice any relevant benefit in respect of any period of maternity leave which goes beyond fourteen weeks in terms of the Social Security Act (Chapter 318 of the laws of Malta) to which the employee may be entitled if she chooses to avail herself of maternity leave beyond the paid fourteen weeks.

Moreover, a pregnant employee shall be entitled to time off without loss of pay or any other benefit, in order to attend antenatal examinations, if such examinations have to take place during her hours of work.

Is annual leave affected?

When an employee is on maternity leave, annual leave shall continue to accrue in their favour. Any balance of annual leave unavailed of by the end of the calendar year shall be automatically transferred to the next calendar year when it has not been possible for the employee to avail herself of such leave during the same year when the maternity leave commenced.

Termination of maternity leave

On termination of maternity leave, the employee will be entitled to resume work in the post she occupied on the commencement of her maternity leave, or in an analogous post if such post is no longer available.

Where a female employee does not resume work or, after having so resumed work, abandons her employment without good and sufficient cause within six months from the date of such resumption, she shall be liable, without prejudice to any other liability at law, to pay the employer a sum equivalent to the wages she received during the maternity leave.

Unlawful dismissal of employee on maternity leave

It is unlawful for an employer to dismiss a pregnant employee, an employee who has recently given birth or an employee who is breastfeeding, from the date in which the employer is informed by the employee, by means of a medical certificate, of her pregnancy, except in cases where there is good and sufficient cause.

Special Maternity Leave

In the case of pregnant employees, employees who have recently given birth and breastfeeding employees, the employer is bound to take measures to protect their health and safety, after a risk assessment is made that reveals a risk to the safety or health or an effect on the pregnancy or breastfeeding of the employee. Such measures include:

• the temporary adjustment of the working environment and/or the hours of work of the employee concerned;
• the assignment of the employee to suitable alternative work which is appropriate for her to do in the circumstances, in the event that the adjustment of her working conditions and/or hours of work is not technically and/or objectively feasible, or cannot reasonably be required on duly substantiated grounds.

If the employer acts in accordance with applicable health and safety legislation but is still unable to comply with the obligations set out above, the employee concerned must be given special maternity leave for the whole of the period necessary to protect her safety or health, without prejudice to her other maternity leave entitlement as already described above.

During such special maternity leave, the employer must pay the employee concerned, for the whole of the period necessary to protect her safety or health, a special allowance equivalent to the rate of sickness benefit payable in terms of the Social Security Act (Chapter 318 of the laws of Malta).

Sick Leave

Sick leave is leave granted to an employee whenever an employee presents a medical certificate certifying incapacity for work.

A full-time employee shall be entitled to sick leave equivalent in hours to two working weeks sick leave in every calendar year on full pay, less an amount equal to the sum set for sickness benefit entitlement at the rate established under the Social Security Act (Chapter 318 of the laws of Malta).

Part-time employees have a pro rata entitlement to sick leave in hours on full pay, less an amount equal to the sum set for sickness benefit entitlement at the rate established under the Social Security Act (Chapter 318 of the laws of Malta), which amount is also to be calculated on a pro rata basis.

The first three days of any claim for sick leave shall be paid in full by the employer.

Adoption Leave

An employee who is the parent of an adopted child (i.e. a person under eighteen (18) years of age) shall be entitled to an uninterrupted period of eighteen weeks of adoption leave whenever a child is adopted. Such leave shall commence on the date when the child passes into the care and custody of the adoptive parent or parents by means of a judgment of a court of law in the country of origin.

An employee on adoption leave shall be entitled to the first fourteen weeks of adoption leave with full wages. If the employee chooses to avail himself of any additional adoption leave beyond the fourteen weeks, the employer shall not be obliged to pay any wages for those extra weeks of adoption leave This shall be without prejudice to any relevant benefit in respect of any period of adoption leave which goes beyond fourteen weeks in terms of the Social Security Act (Chapter 318 of the laws of Malta) to which the employee may be entitled if he chooses to avail himself of adoption leave beyond the paid fourteen weeks.

An employee intending to avail themselves of adoption leave must notify the employer at least two weeks before the adoption leave begins, in so far as is reasonably practicable. This must be done in writing, informing the employer of the date when the employee intends to make use of such entitlement.

Who is entitled to adoption leave?

In the case of a single parent, adoption leave shall be enjoyed by that parent.

In the case of more than one parent:

1. if only one parent is in employment on the date of adoption of the child, adoption leave shall be enjoyed by that parent;
2. if both parents are in employment, whether with different employers or with the same employer, on the date of adoption of the child, each parent shall be entitled to such part of the adoption leave as they may agree in writing.

Leave for Medically Assisted Procreation

The law grants a period of up to one hundred (100) hours of paid leave to employees who undergo the process of medically assisted procreation, whether in or outside Malta.

This entitlement covers all treatments or procedures that include the in vitro handling of human oocytes, spermatozoa or embryos for establishing a pregnancy. This includes, but is not limited to, intra-uterine insemination, in vitro fertilization, intracytoplasmic sperm injection, embryo transfer, gamete, germinal tissue and embryo cryo-preservation and oocyte and embryo donation.

Parental Leave

Employees, both male and female, are entitled to be granted up to four months of unpaid parental leave on the grounds of birth, adoption, fostering or legal custody of a child to enable them to take care of that child, until the child has attained the age of eight years. This is a non-transferable entitlement.

Parental leave shall be availed of in established periods of one (1) month each. The employer and the employee may together decide whether to grant the parental leave on a full-time or a part-time basis, in a piecemeal way or in the form of a time credit system.

Importantly, an employee must have at least 12 months continuous service with their employer to be eligible to apply for Parental Leave, unless a shorter period is agreed to.

Other Leave

Every employee shall be entitled to:

1. one working day of bereavement leave (i.e. leave to be granted to the employee without loss of wages on the occasion of the death of the spouse, parent, son, daughter, brother or sister of the employee, and includes a person who has, or in the past had, legal custody of the employee, or a person who is in the legal custody of the employee);
2. one working day of birth leave (i.e. leave without loss of wages granted to a father on the occasion of the birth of his child);
3. two working days of marriage leave (i.e. leave to be granted without loss of wages to an employee on the occasion of his or her marriage);
4. up to one year of injury leave (i.e. leave on full wages, less the full amount of any injury benefit to which the employee may be entitled under the Social Security Act (Chapter 318 of the laws of Malta), if the employee suffers personal injury caused by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment, or by any of the diseases specified in the said Social Security Act (being a disease due to the nature of his work) not due to any contributory negligence on his part or to any contravention of safety rules);
5. jury service leave for as long as necessary (i.e. leave to be granted by an employer without loss of wages to an employee who is called to serve as a juror, to enable him to attend to his duties at the law courts);
6. quarantine leave for any period of quarantine as may be determined by the Superintendent of Public Health or by any other public authority (i.e. leave to be granted to the employee without loss of wages in such cases where the employee is legally obliged to abide by a quarantine order confining the employee to a certain area or to certain premises as determined by the Superintendent of Public Health under the Public Health Act (Chapter 465 of the laws of Malta) or by any public authority under any other law).

In the case of court testimony, no employee is entitled at law to special leave to attend court as a witness except in the case of workers in the hospital and clinics sector who are allowed special paid leave to attend court as witness in relation to police cases.

Part-Time Employees

Part-time employees are entitled pro rata to the minimum entitlement of all public holidays and annual vacation leave, sick leave, birth leave, bereavement leave, quarantine leave, marriage leave and injury leave applicable in terms of the recognized conditions of employment, and to such other leave established by virtue of applicable employment legislation in Malta.

The pro rata leave entitlement of a part-time employee shall be computed in hours as a fraction of the total number of hours of leave entitlement of a comparable full-time employee.

The pro rata leave entitlement of a part-time employee shall be availed of as whole working days, with the equivalent number of hours being deducted from the pro rata leave entitlement calculated in hours.

When the residual hours of leave entitlement are less than the part-time employee’s working day, the remaining entitlement shall be availed of as part of a working day on one occasion.