Employment Law Overview

The right of all citizens to work and the state's role in promoting the conditions to make this right effective is enshrined in Malta's 1974 Republican Constitution. Indeed the Constitution's first clause states that "Malta is a democratic republic founded on work and on respect for the fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual". The Constitution also upholds the basic principles of workers' rights, including inter alia the maximum number of daily working hours, a weekly rest day, holidays without pay, the establishment of a minimum working age, gender equality, professional and vocational training for workers, contributory social insurance and the provision of the means of subsistence for those unable to work. The Constitution, however, leaves it to statutory acts to add flesh to these basic principles.