Government to subsidise employers' maternity leave payments

Government to pay 14 weeks maternity leave

Government will be softening the financial burden of maternity leave for businesses, as part of the new national employment policy, which was published this morning.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said today that it was high time that a new employment policy was drafted, the last being carried out 10 years ago. “Not much of that policy was actually implemented,” he said. “We will strive to ensure that these new policies are implemented and not just written down on paper.”

As part of this new strategy, government will be subsidising the amount incurred by private and public companies in maternity leave. Employers will be made to pay a higher social security for each employee, whether male or female. In return, the excess flow of social security contribution shall be allocated towards the provision of maternity leave for women.

This, Muscat said, will go a long way to “levelling out the playing-field” for men and women in the working field. “It will also complement other schemes introduced by government such as the free childcare scheme,” he said.

Reiterating that “the best policy for work was education”, Muscat said that unemployed persons applying for jobs which were not available at the time, will be advised to apply for different – albeit similar – vacancies.

“We all know the story of pump attendants,” he said. “A total of 350 people apply for this job every year and yet there are only an average of five vacancies a year. We would be taking these people for a ride if we allowed these people to apply for these jobs,” he said, citing the cleaning occupation as another example.

He added that minimum wage earners will be granted financial top-ups on their monthly salary in an attempt to encourage them to find employment, while retaining part of their benefits.

Other policies include a revamping of the ICT system of the Employment and Training Corporation to allow for more transparency and efficiency, open-employment opportunities for persons suffering from a disability, helping the elderly to remain active in employment in line with the recently-launched Active Ageing Strategy, and the setting up of a Gozo local employment development unit “to ensure that job opportunities in Gozo are exhausted.”

Muscat said that the new policies were agreed to by government, the employers and the workers’ unions, and all parties stood to gain from them. He said that the number of work places was on the increase and government had assisted in this increase.

On his part, Clyde Caruana, chairperson of Jobs+, said that the “biggest pillar” under this new policy was to not only increase but to strengthen workers’ skills. “The biggest challenge we face is not related to actually creating jobs but rather to create skills for these workers to compete and to be in a position to earn better salaries.”

Seconding Muscat’s statement, Caruana said that one key element of the policy was to ensure that people go out and work. “We need a benefit system in place whereby people seek employment even if the work is low-income,” he said. “Government is committed to topping this up.”

He said that by decreasing the dependency on social benefits, government, employers and the workers themselves will be better off. “We want to truly make work pay... what began with the last budget must continue.”

“The implemented system will allow for no excuses for those who really want to work,” he said.

On maternity leave, Caruana said that a major part of women suffered directly or indirectly from some form of discrimination at work, with a substantial number almost forced to leave their jobs when pregnant. He said if the funding of maternity leave had to be shared across the board, much of this discrimination would be done away with.

“In reality, this policy is no different to what happens in other countries,” he said.

Caruana added that the policy will include a number of measures whereby incentives are offered for low-skilled youngsters in order to continue their studies. This included the setting-up of workshops and apprenticeships.

Labour initiatives for immigrants

The policy outlines how it is “government’s duty to respect the dignity” of immigrants by “integrating them into society”.

“From an economic perspective, given the current deficiencies within the Maltese labour market of an ageing workforce and a declining working age population it would be feasible to train and educate these persons in order to engage them into unfilled vacancies,” it reads.

However, whilst it explains that “various initiatives are underway to train and educate migrants”, it fails to specify what these initiatives are.

“Through these initiatives, migrants would be recruited through the formal market to fill up unfilled vacancies,” it reads. “Moreover, this would mitigate the extent of underground employment and its consequences on the formal labour market.”