Sick leave abuse will be “impossible to control” if the government fulfils its electoral pledge to allow parents to stay off work when their children are ill, Malta Employers’ Association director-general Joe Farrugia said.

“Company doctors will not be entitled to examine the sick children of workers. We will have no way of knowing if the cases are genuine,” he added.

Mr Farrugia was contacted for his reaction to last week’s National Statistics Office report, which showed sick days had cost employers €37.1 million in 2012, the highest figure in five years. The total amount of sick days taken in 2012 by both public and private employees was 645,313, an increase of 9,125 days compared to 2011.

Mr Farrugia said he expected that the bulk of the increase in employers’ sick day expenditure mentioned in the NSO report was due to more people being employed.

“What concerns us most is the escalation of entitlements,” he said. “Obviously, if it is ever implemented, the proposal to allow parents to take sick leave will increase the number of sickness days.” The director-general added that some employers were also concerned about workers requesting sick leave for reconstructive surgery, as well the propensity for younger employees to stay off work on Mondays after the weekend.

“We support sick leave as an entitlement, provided it is only used by people who are unfit for work,” Mr Farrugia said.

Currently employees not covered by wage orders or collective agreements are permitted to take up to two fully-paid working weeks of sick leave per year, less any sickness benefit they may be entitled to under the Social Security Act. Employees must produce a medical certificate to prove they were sick, and many employers insist on having their workers assessed by their own company doctor.

The Social Dialogue Ministry told this newspaper in January that studies were being conducted to look at how to implement the pledge to allow parents to call in sick in order to take care of their ill children.

A ministry spokesman said that he hoped the proposal would be implemented during the current legislature.

In last week’s NSO report, a slight majority (50.5 per cent) of all sick days taken in 2012 were by public sector employees.