25 October 2022
Through the publication of Legal Notice 267 of 2022 on Friday, October 21, 2022, the Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Regulations, which implement the Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Directive (2019/1152), went into effect. Every worker in the European Union with an employment contract or other relationship is subject to the minimum standards for working conditions set forth in the Regulations.
Building on the list that was already provided to employees under the Information to Employees Regulations, the Regulations outline a longer list of information that must be presented to employees. Depending on the nature of the information, the employer must give the employee access to it within seven or one calendar month after the first day of work. Employees who are outworkers and employees who are forced to work outside of Malta for a duration longer than four weeks must get specific information. Along with a few minor adjustments, the Information to Employees Regulations already included a list of the documents that every business was required to maintain in relation to every employee.
It is now against the law to alter an employee’s working circumstances once they start working there, unless there has been a change in the law or a collective bargaining agreement. Zero-hour contracts, which do not guarantee the employee a minimum number of hours of work, are also prohibited, with the exception of situations where the activity requires workers to be available for replacement at short notice, the work is not the employee’s full-time job, or the employee is a full-time student. The last restriction is on not allowing an employee to work for another company outside of their regular working hours unless there are legitimate reasons to do so, such as maintaining business confidentiality or preventing conflicts of interest.
21 Academy will be organising a 60 minute webinar to explain the implications of these regulations as well as other regulations enacted through Legal Notice 268 of 2022. More information about the webinar from this link.