Holidays

• 1st January – New Year’s Day

• 10th February – Feast of St. Paul’s Shipwreck

• 19th March – Saint Joseph

• 31st March – Freedom Day

• 2nd April – Good Friday

• 4th April – Easter Day

• 1st May – Labour Day

• 7th June – Sette Giugno

• 29th June – St. Peter and Paul

• 15th August – Assumption Day

• 8th September – Victory Day

• 21st September – Independence Day

• 1st November – All Saint’s Day

• 2nd November – All Soul’s Day

• 8th December – Feast of the Immaculate Conception

• 13th December – Republic Day

• 25th December – Christmas Day

• 31st December – New Year’s Eve

Paid Time Off

PTO (Paid Time Off)

• Vacation/Annual Paid Leave

Vacation leave starts to accumulate as from commencement of employment. It can be availed of only in agreement between the employer and the employee. Once leave from the  annual  leave  entitlement  of  the employee has been agreed to by the employer and the employee, such leave cannot be cancelled unilaterally but can only be cancelled if both the employer and the employee are in agreement. 

By mutual agreement with the employer, leave can be taken in hours. Otherwise, if there is no agreement between the employer and the employee, leave has to be availed of as a whole day.

An employee with a 40-hour working week is entitled to 216 hours of paid annual leave; that is, the 192 hours of basic leave entitlement and additional 24hrs. in lieu for the 3 Public Holidays that fall on weekends.

When an employee is in employment for less than 12 months, s/he shall be entitled to a proportionate amount of annual leave

• Rollovers and payout of unused hours

• Use-it-or-lose-it policy 

Any balance of the  annual  leave unused by the end of the calendar year shall be automatically transferred to the next calendar year.

• PTO payout at the termination

The law specifies that a minimum period equivalent to four weeks (160 hours) cannot be replaced by any allowance, except where the employee’s employment is terminated. Therefore, in respect of the 160 hours that cannot be compensated for, the employee cannot claim payment.

Maternity Leave, Child Raising Leave, Parental Leave

Maternity Leave

A pregnant employee is entitled to maternity leave for an uninterrupted period of eighteen weeks. The first fourteen weeks are paid by the employer, but the weeks after the first fourteen weeks are not paid by the employer.

The employee is obliged to avail herself of six weeks of the total entitlement immediately after the date of confinement. Another four weeks are to be taken 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 may be taken, either immediately before or immediately after the aforementioned periods, as the employee may decide.

Medical certificate is required.

Paternity Leave 

All employees are entitled to paid paternity leave on the occasion of the birth of a child.

Parental Leave

Employees are entitled to parental leave if they have been employed for at least 12 months of continuous service.

Both male and female employees are entitled to individual unpaid parental leave in case of birth, adoption, fostering or legal custody of a child to enable them to take care of the child for a period of four months until the child has reached the age of eight years. Parental leave can be availed of in established periods of one month each.

Adoption Leave

An employee who is the parent of an adopted child is entitled to an uninterrupted period of eighteen weeks of adoption leave whenever a child is adopted and 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 is entitled to the first fourteen weeks of adoption leave with full wages but 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 weeks of adoption leave.

Sick Leave

Sick Leave

Employees are entitled to up to two working weeks of paid sick leave per year.

In occasions of sickness, a medical certificate has to be presented to the employer.

Injury Leave

All employees are entitled to a maximum period of one year of injury leave with full pay.

Urgent Family Leave

Employees are entitled to up 15 hours of paid leave per year due to a sickness, injury or accident of members of the immediate family.

Jury Duty Leave, and Voting Leave

All employees are entitled to Jury Leave, where an employee is allowed all the necessary time off on full pay to attend the court on such service.

Employees who work in the hospital and clinics sector are allowed to go on a special paid leave to attend court as witness in relation to police cases.

Bereavement Leave

All employees are allowed paid bereavement leave on the occasion of the death of a close family member.

Bereavement Leave entitlement is only allowed in respect of the following relatives: Wife, husband, mother, father, son, daughter, brother or sister of the employee.

Military Leave

Not specified by law.

Please consult your local legal counsel to learn more about Malta Leave Laws.

To learn more about laws in various countries, check out our Leave Laws page.