The Malta Employers’ Association is proposing that employees presenting medical certificates on a Monday morning suffering from sunburn should not be given “sick leave”.

This proposal reminds me of my days as personnel manager at the dockyard when in winter we used to get medical certificates on Monday mornings from known footballers. Luckily we had a medical officer who would check all their medical certificates. He would then pass on his opinion on whether the “sick leave” should be approved.

So it was a case of sunburn in summer and football injuries in winter. It worked and on one occasion the yard’s doctor did not approve his own brother’s certificate – a footballer!

This practice was in operation during the late 1970s and early 1980s at a time when the Labour Party was in government. But of course not all firms can afford their own doctor.