Forum, a group of 11 unions, has urged the government to “seriously reconsider” its decision to oppose a European proposal to increase maternity leave.

Forum said it believed the revision of the Pregnancy Workers’ Directive was crucial to improve the situation of working women, especially for their health and safety during pregnancy or after childbirth.

“These are indispensable pre-conditions for the reconciliation of work and family life, which is of key importance for a sustainable economic, social and demographic development of the EU and its member states,” it said.

Malta, together with the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Sweden and the UK, decided to oppose the increase of maternity leave in the last Employment and Social Affairs Council meeting.

The directive seeks protection against dismissal and the provision of breastfeeding, health and safety and reproductive rights.

The government said it had publicly expressed itself in favour of extending maternity leave as long as there was a level playing field across the EU. The length of maternity leave differed in member states and in some cases maternity leave was not even paid in full.

“In Malta’s case, maternity leave has already been increased from 13 to 14 weeks and is paid in full,” the Parliamentary Secretariat for Public Consultation said in reply to Forum.

The government was committed to further protect the working mother and, through a legal notice issued earlier this year, pregnant women were given further protection making it illegal for an employer to sack women during their maternity leave, even during probation. Dismissal in such circumstances was illegal unless there were “substantiated grounds” justified in writing, it said.

“Such measures go a long way in showing that the Maltese government is committed to further protect the working mother for the benefit of her family,” the government said.