Introduction
Over the past year, Maltese employment law has gone through a number of substantive legislative changes. Through these changes, one can clearly notice a trend in more emphasis being placed on family friendly measures, pay transparency and equity, workplace well-being and protective measures against workplace harassment and misconduct. The rapid introduction of such changes over a short period of time placed some pressure on employers, who are now recognising the importance of continuously keeping up to date with newly introduced legislation in order to ensure that all company policies remain up to date and to avoid incurring any penalties, which are becoming heftier as time goes by.
This article shall explore the key developments that shaped Maltese employment law in the past year and what this might mean for the employment sector in the near future.
Pay Transparency Directive
Perhaps the most awaited development in the employment law sphere was the transposition of the EU Pay Transparency Directive (2023/970). Whilst the principle of equal pay for equal work or for work of equal value has long been an established principle in Maltese law, the transposition of the EU Pay Transparency Directive has brought about a plethora of new obligations on the employer aimed at ensuring that this principle is truly upheld and enforced.
Malta has been quite proactive when it comes to the transposition of the EU Pay Transparency Directive. In fact, in August 2025, some minor amendments were already introduced to the Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Regulations in virtue of Legal Notice 112 of 2025, whereby applicants were given the right to receive information about the initial pay, or its range, and where applicable, the relevant pay provisions of the collective agreement attributable to the position that they wanted to apply for. In addition, employees already in employment had the right to request information from their employer about their individual pay level and pay levels for categories of workers performing the same work as them at any time during their employment.
The transposition of the EU Pay Transposition Directive was then completed on 5 June 2026, just two days before the deadline imposed in the same Directive. The transposition took place by virtue of the Equal Pay (Transparency and Reporting) Regulations, 2026, Subsidiary Legislation 452.172. It is noteworthy that Malta was one of only four member states to meet the deadline, alongside Italy, Lithuania and Slovakia.
When applying the new Subsidiary Legislation 452.172, employers will note that pay transparency obligations now extend to the recruitment stage, whereby employers will now be prohibited from asking applicants about their current or previous pay history. In addition, employers must ensure that job advertisements, job titles and recruitment processes are gender-neutral and free from discrimination, supporting the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value.
In addition, employers are now obliged to inform all workers of their right to receive pay information and the steps required to exercise such rights on an annual basis. Employers must further prepare and provide written policies establishing the criteria used for pay and pay levels. These written policies or criteria must be accessible to employees at all times.
In this regard it is important to note that whilst employers engaging over 50 employees remain obliged to establish criteria determining the pay, pay levels and pay progression, employers engaging fewer than 50 employees are exempt from setting out the criteria in so far as this relates to pay progression. Nonetheless, employers engaging between 25 and 49 employees remain obliged to internally document the criteria used to determine workers’ pay, pay level and pay progression, at least at employer level. In all cases, even when an employer engages fewer than 25 employees, the employer still remains bound with the principle relating to equal pay for equal work or work for equal values.
Employees already in employment may request, in writing, information on their individual pay level and the average pay levels of colleagues performing the same work or work of equal value, broken down by sex. An eight-day response window is imposed for such requests. Unanswered requests can escalate to a workers’ representative or trade union within 12 days, and ultimately to the Equality Body (that is, the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality), with criminal exposure if the employer fails to respond accurately within 45 days.
Subsidiary Legislation 452.172 seeks to ensure effective enforcement of the newly introduced regulation by imposing criminal penalties on employers found to be in breach of this legislation. Fines ranging between EUR2,500 and EUR7,000 are imposed, which double in case of breaches connected to gender or intersectional discrimination.
Employers must therefore acknowledge that the obligations related to pay transparency are no longer compliance items which they can slowly plan for. The obligations are already in force, with tight response deadlines that leave little room for ad hoc handling. At this stage, employers should already be auditing pay structures and documenting objective, gender-neutral criteria for such structures. Waiting for the first gender pay gap report deadline before taking action may prove to be quite costly.
Family-Friendly Entitlements
A new emerging trend seems to be the introduction of family-friendly measures aimed at supporting employees in balancing their personal and family life with their work commitments. 2026 has in fact brought a cluster of new leave entitlements aimed at supporting employees through difficult life events. Taken together, these reforms reflect a legislative trend towards recognising the full range of family and health-related circumstances employees may face in their personal lives.
Miscarriage leave
The Miscarriage Leave Regulations, Subsidiary Legislation 452.138 came into force on 1 January 2026. This newly introduced regulation provides seven consecutive calendar days of fully paid leave following a miscarriage occurring before the 22nd week of pregnancy. This entitlement is available to both the person who suffered the miscarriage and the other prospective parent, regardless of gender and/or sexual orientation. Furthermore, miscarriage leave is available to all employees, irrespective of the type of employment contract concluded with the employer and irrespective of the length of service in that specific employment.
Special parental bereavement leave
By virtue of Legal Notice 275 of 2025, the Minimum Special Leave Entitlement Regulation, Subsidiary Legislation 452.101 was amended to introduce special parental bereavement leave. This entitlement, which came into effect on 1 January 2026, gives employees seven working days of paid leave on the death of a child aged under 18.
Parental leave for parents of children born abroad
The Work-Life Balance for Parents and Carers (Amendment) Regulations, published on 21 April 2026 by virtue of Legal Notice 102 of 2026 and which came into force on 21 June 2026, introduced a special leave entitlement for employees who are recognised as parents of a child born outside Malta, on a foreign act of birth which is subsequently registered in Malta, when the same parents would not have physically given birth to the child, in circumstances which do not fall within adoption leave. Therefore, indirectly this entitlement is granted to those employees who become parents through surrogacy.
Eligible employees are entitled to 18 weeks of uninterrupted leave. The first 14 weeks are to be paid by the employer at full wages, while the remaining period is to be compensated in accordance with the Social Security Act. The leave may start either on the date of birth of the child or up to two weeks before the expected date of birth.
Overhaul of Sectoral Employment Standards
On 30 April 2026, Legal Notices 112 to 143 of 2026 were introduced with the aim of repealing and replacing the old Wages Council Wages Regulation Orders (WROs). Instead, the Conditions of Work Regulation Orders were introduced in order to establish clearer and more comprehensive standards regulating employment conditions within different sectors of employment. The Legal Notices were published on 30 April 2026 and came into force on 30 June 2026: they are applicable to a wide range of sectors, from retail, private security and hotels to hospitals, schools and cinemas.
Key changes introduced by the new Legal Notices include the following.
- Sick leave from the very first day – Several WROs previously imposed a qualifying period, often ranging from six months to a year, before an employee could access paid sick leave. The new framework removes that gap, meaning new employees are covered immediately upon their engagement (albeit pro-rated where employment starts mid-year).
- Night shift and shift premiums – In certain sectors, employees will be awarded night shift and shift premiums, recognising the additional burden placed on shift workers.
- Sector-specific entitlements – These include free meals for hospital employees; uniforms and protective equipment for employees in sectors where these are required in the performance of the employees’ duties; and full-pay leave for whole-time employees who are injured or contract a disease while on duty.
- Standardised bereavement and marriage leave – By virtue of Legal Notice 144 of 2026, minor amendments have been introduced to the Minimum Special Leave Entitlement Regulations, whereby employees have been granted three working days of marriage leave and three working days of bereavement leave. This entitlement shall apply to all employees, irrespective of the sector of work or whether they were previously covered by a Wage Regulation Order.
- Annual leave and rest periods – These have now been consolidated under the Organisation of Working Time Regulations, removing inconsistencies that previously existed between different WROs. In addition, and in line with the most recent legislative amendments, employees shall continue to be entitled to national holidays and public holidays with full pay, all forms of leave established under the Minimum Special Leave Entitlement Regulations, and any additional forms of leave that may from time to time be prescribed under the National Standard Order or any regulations issued under the Employment and Industrial Relations Act.
The introduction of these Conditions of Work Regulation Orders reflects a clear attempt to standardise conditions amongst different sectors of work, ensuring that rights and entitlements are kept up to date with today’s needs. Employers engaging employees in sectors covered by the new Conditions of Work Regulations Orders must now carry out a thorough review of their employee’s conditions, contracts of employment and internal policies to ensure that they are in line with the new regulations and that any reference to the previous Wage Regulation Orders is removed.
Criminalising Workplace Violence, Harassment and Bullying
By virtue of Act No XI of 2026, published on 2 April 2026, amendments were introduced to the Employment and Industrial Relations Act, Chapter 452 of the Laws of Malta, with the scope of ensuring a work environment free from violence and harassment. It is interesting to note that the amendments introduced are in line with the International Labour Organization’s Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No 190).
The amendments primarily separate the concept of harassment from the more specific concept of sexual harassment. In fact, the marginal note to Article 29, which previously read “Harassment”, has been amended to read “Sexual Harassment”, narrowing that provision to the prohibition of conduct of a sexual nature. By virtue of this amendment, a standalone, general prohibition on workplace violence and harassment has therefore been created. More specifically, a new Article 29A now prohibits any conduct, be it physical, verbal, written, psychological, sexual or economic, that targets an individual, causes harm, or is likely to cause harm, including creating or permitting an environment of intimidation, hostility, or an offensive or abusive atmosphere. Unlike the previous regulation, this conduct is no longer tied to discriminatory grounds. Instead, bullying and harassment that fall outside sex-based or other discrimination grounds are now also captured in their own right for the first time.
It is also important to note that by virtue of these amendments, the concept of a work environment is no longer limited to the physical workplace where duties are performed. It now encompasses settings connected to work-related activities, including journeys to and from work, break rooms, training sessions, work-related travel, and social events linked to employment. Furthermore, protection now extends beyond individuals in standard employment relationships to include interns, volunteers, individuals whose employment has been terminated, and prospective employees, including job applicants and job seekers.
Workplace violence and harassment may be addressed through existing enforcement mechanisms, including proceedings before the Industrial Tribunal. More importantly, the amendments also introduce criminal sanctions for breaches, effectively criminalising certain forms of workplace bullying.
Employers must be cautious about the introduction of these new amendments, since the introduction of harassment as a separate concept is not merely an amendment that can be absorbed through a policy footnote. Company handbooks and policies, codes of conduct, anti-harassment policies and complaint-handling procedures drafted around the old, sex-based definition of harassment will need to be rewritten to reflect the broader Article 29A standard, and both management and employees will need training on the materially wider concept of what counts as actionable workplace conduct.
Upcoming Developments and Trends
Recently, there has been growing nationwide discourse on the need for enhanced maternity, paternity and parental leave entitlements. The current 18-week maternity leave and ten-day paternity leave are increasingly criticised as insufficient for parents who need more time with their newborns in the earliest stages of life. Indeed, during the 2026 general elections, political parties placed considerable emphasis on pledges to increase such entitlements. There has also been active discussion around the introduction of NPICU Support leave for parents of newborns requiring intensive care as well as a proposed “leave donation” scheme, which would allow employees to transfer unused leave to colleagues facing exceptional circumstances. Whilst none of the above-mentioned proposals are yet concrete, in light of the family-friendly measures already introduced earlier in 2026 (as discussed in the “Family-Friendly Entitlements” section above), this appears to be the area most likely to see further legislative change in the near future.
A less legislative but increasingly visible trend is the shift in how “occupational health and safety” is understood in Malta. Since the Health and Safety at Work Act (Cap. 646) came into force in November 2024, establishing the Occupational Health and Safety Authority, there has been a steady widening of focus from physical safety towards psychological and social well-being at work. Recent discussions and conferences have repeatedly flagged mental health, burnout and psychosocial risk as areas where employers are expected to take a more proactive stance, rather than treating them as a matter for internal HR discretion alone.
Employers must also take note of two further areas of potential improvement and changes. The first is continued government discussion about mandatory auto-enrolment occupational pensions which, whilst not yet implemented, appear increasingly likely to materialise in the near future. The second is the ongoing discourse and changes to the labour migration policy, which hint at tighter advertising obligations, revised permit procedures and greater compliance scrutiny expected for employers of third-country nationals.
Conclusion
Taken together, these developments and trends reflect a clear shift towards stronger employee protection, more rigorous transparency, and more active enforcement, coupled with a genuine effort to modernise a regulatory framework that, in places, had not been substantially updated in decades. For employers, the takeaway is straightforward: staying abreast of legislative change is no longer optional, and company handbooks, policies, procedures and contracts must be constantly reviewed and updated accordingly. Failure to do so is unlikely to be deemed as a mere compliance oversight. Instead, it carries real exposure to liability, regulatory sanction and reputational risk
This article was originally published on Chambers and Partners, Global and Practice Guide – Employment 2026.
