Malta’s position on maternity leave proposal unchanged

A spokesperson for the Prime Minister said that “Malta has always held that any solution on this dossier should seek to place each member state on the same footing. Malta has always said that given the current economic situation we must be very careful with measures that increase the burden on employers and government funds. Malta will retain this position in Council."

The maternity leave expansion plans also came under fire by the British government a week before the proposal was due to be voted on in European Parliament, while in Malta Labour welcomed the proposal as a measure with “long-term beneficial effects with regard to female participation vis-à-vis economic growth.”

Asked if government will be voting in favour of extending maternity leave, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister pointed out that the proposal requires “the agreement of both Council and the European Parliament. The EU legislative process on this dossier has not yet been finalised (and is still at an early stage).”

The spokesperson said that a final decision on whether the government would implement the proposal or not “will only be taken once the legislative process has been finalised.”

Asked if government has any intention of shouldering the burden of increased maternity leave instead of employers, as was recommended by women’s and employers’ organisations alike earlier this week, OPM was evasive – answering only that “it is not an issue of who should pay for it but a question of what might be suitable in particular in today's situation.”

On Wednesday, MEPs voted in favour to revising a 1992 law on maternity leave to give women 20 weeks on full pay and granting fathers two weeks of paid leave. The current version of the law requires women to be given 14 weeks of minimum sick pay leave.

"The amendments put forward by MEPs on maternity and paternity pay would cost us up to 2.4 billion pounds (€2.7 billion)," a UK government spokesperson was reported as saying. "To put this into context, we currently spend around two billion pounds a year on maternity pay, meaning the cost would effectively double."

In reaction to the EP vote, PL MP and spokesperson on family and equality Justyne Caruana said that the “PL has always been in favour of this proposal - now also approved by the EP. Lest we forget, it was the PL who introduced maternity leave in our country in the first place.”

She affirmed how the maternity leave extension “will have long-term beneficial effects with regard to female participation vis-à-vis economic growth and therefore should be seen as an investment.” She added how these benefits were also established by a study carried out by PL.

In line with calls by employers’ and women’s organisations, Caruana said that this investment “must be borne by all stakeholders not only employers,” adding that “government must shoulder its full share of responsibility.”

“Considering the vote in the EP, this measure will eventually be binding on us as well and it makes no sense that government is shying away, even in our parliament, from this reality,” she said.

Considering that the proposal has now reached approval stage at the council of Ministers, Caruana augured that the government “will take a position to ensure a viable solution in favour of women employees.”

She pointed out how the PL has already published its study “revealing the beneficial effects of this increase.”

Caruana affirmed that this move is “in sound contradiction with what government is doing and saying that it is doing” – citing government’s stand in parliament on having carried out a study while at the same time “refusing to give any data or details, while Prime Minister Gonzi insisting that it is too premature to take a position.”