The Malta Employers Association has stuck to its guns on its controversial proposal that the first day of sick leave should be unpaid, citing widespread abuse by workers.

The proposal, which was included in the association's pre-budget proposals, was met with fierce opposition by the main workers' unions.

Speaking to The Malta Independent, MEA director Joe Farrugia said the union has been speaking about abuse at the workplace for a long time. In 2016 Farrugia had spoken about the so-called 'Monday morning syndrome', which refers to the abuse, mainly by younger workers, who report sick after a weekend.  

The association has previously also laid the blame "on ethical practices' by medical doctors when issuing sickness certificates.

Asked why the MEA was again targeting sick leave, Farrugia said: "We need to curtail abuse. Many employers have complained about the increase of sick leave being taken, particularly connected to days around the weekend, such as Mondays." He added that other countries, such as Germany, have similar measures, where either the companies do not pay for the first sick day or the government does.

This newspaper also asked how one can differentiate between someone who is truly ill, and those who are not. "That is a problem, but one of the issues in Malta is that it is very easy to get a doctors certificate for anything. This is causing a problem for companies, which can often tell who really is sick and who isn't. You start to notice patterns in certain individuals and point to this abuse," Farrugia said.

The idea of companies sending doctors was also addressed, with Farrugia replying that it is very expensive to send a doctor to an employee's home. "It would cost about €15 for each visit, which is expensive and therefore problematic for small companies. Some companies do send a doctor, but many do not," Farrugia confirmed.

He also assured that when workers are in real need to extend their sick leave for more serious reasons, 90 per cent of employers are very generous about it, and they do grant extensions for serious and long-term illness.

Farrugia also added that although the economy is in good shape, there can be ups and downs, and employers cannot just give out so many benefits as this would be unsustainable. "We need to make sure these benefits don't affect a company's competitiveness. If one compares the entitlements of Malta with other, wealthier countries, we have reasonable sick and vacation leave entitlements."

This newspaper also asked about the health considerations.  Acknowledging that employers need to make sure that people do not report to work sick, he said that these things need to be "looked into and weighed up."

The MEA director said all this was necessary since new proposals would be reducing the number of working days. These include the increase in maternity and paternal leave, the change allowing parents to take sick leave when their children are sick, and the proposal to return public holidays that fall on weekends. "On one hand these entitlements are necessary, but they must be accompanied by tighter controls on other things" Farrugia said. He explained that the government and employers need a package which they both agree on. 

Sick leave rights must be protected at all costs - Moviment Graffitti

Moviment Graffitti strongly condemned the proposal by the Malta Employers Association to introduce a ‘waiting day’, where the first day of sick leave would be unpaid. "This proposal should be opposed on principle and in light of the past struggles of the workers’ movements to achieve decent working conditions."

"We believe that the health and wellbeing of employees must always be prioritised over profit. The introduction of a waiting day puts economic pressure on, and will affect, all workers especially those with health problems. The excuse that such a measure exists in other countries is unreasonable because it omits the fact that the wages in Malta are significantly lower than those in mainland Europe. Such a proposal also shows the MEA’s indifference towards the speedily rising cost of living and the challenges faced by many ordinary Maltese families to make ends meet."

"Moviment Graffitti is ready to seek alliances with workers’ movements if sick leave rights are put under threat. These rights must be protected at all costs since, as we have seen from other rights such as leave that falls on weekends, if these rights are lost, they might be lost for good."

Moviment Graffitti also believes that the MEA’s concerns over legalized marijuana are unattested. "Claiming the right to conduct random drug tests implies intrusion into the private life of employees which is totally unacceptable."