The Budget measure to create a maternity fund has not yet been implemented, causing some confusion among employers, according to the Malta Employers Association.
Speaking yesterday during a discussion on work-life balance and equality organised by the European Parliament Information Office and the European Commission Representation in Malta, legal adviser Charlotte Camilleri said employers were calling the association to see whether they should start pooling into the fund.
According to the last Budget in November, private companies are to contribute 0.3 per cent of the salary of each employee – male or female – into a fund from which maternity leave in the private sector will be paid.
Yet, the MEA is still waiting for the government to provide employers with the mechanism framework of how the measure will be implemented.
MEP Alfred Sant said the economic recession gave rise to a curious trend where, despite the narrowing gender pay gap, people at risk-of-poverty were undergoing a worsening work-life balance.
Dr Sant admitted he felt uncomfortable in such discussions because people ended up speaking only of the middle-class.
The gender pay gap has decreased but so has disposable income
It was important, he emphasised, to look at the way the economic crisis was affecting people in the working classes, especially people with precarious jobs, those at risk of poverty and the unemployed.
“In the past, women were deemed as being the buffers, in that they would be the first to be sacked. Now the buffering trend has swung: both genders are on the receiving end.
“The gender pay gap has decreased but so has disposable income. This is reflected in Malta as well.”
MEP Roberta Metsola also stressed the importance of looking at people with low levels of education who found it hard to emerge from the social benefit rut.
The vast majority of young working parents were in a situation where the option of teleworking or the luxury of going on holiday were not possible to them, she pointed out.
For MEP Therese Comodini Cachia, the key was empowering men and women equally.
“If we don’t do that, we continue to fail,” she warned.
It was up to the couple to work out the best method to balance out their work and family lives. Structures needed to be in place which would enable couples to find the best mechanism which fit their lifestyles.
Lawyer Nickie Vella de Fremeaux, who is a mother to five children, spoke about the importance of having nurseries on the workplace as well as the availability of flexitime.
CEO of 6pm Holdings Ivan Bartolo explained that his wife, who is a doctor, and himself share their schedules and work around each other’s needs.
“If my wife needs to travel, I would automatically know that I would need to take three days of leave to look after the children and perhaps work from home.”
“The policies and law frameworks are there but you have to be the one to create your own framework,” he said.