The government should share the burden of paying for maternity leave with employers and eventually foot the entire bill itself, the Malta Employers’ Association said.

It is proposing the government starts paying maternity leave benefits, which stands at 14 weeks, over a transitional four-year period.

Malta was one of the few countries where maternity leave was paid by the employer and the prospect of extending such leave threatened to increase the costs while creating a disadvantage for women seeking jobs.

To be competitive, employers had to have a level playing field with competing companies operating in other EU countries where the leave was paid by the government.

“If the obligation for female employees to work for six months after the maternity leave would be removed, as was being said by some MEPs, then employers should not pay for maternity leave because the employee would not be required to work after the maternity leave would have expired,” the MEA said.

It said it would be submitting a document to the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development in the coming days.

Extending paid maternity leave by another six weeks and introducing a minimum two weeks of paid paternity leave, as was being discussed at EU level, would cost the Maltese economy about €5 million, according to a leading economist.

The female employment rate stands at 37.7 per cent of the working age female population, much lower than the EU average of 58.6 per cent.