The Nationalist Party is pledging 15 days of paternity leave to new fathers and two weeks bereavement leave for parents following the loss of a child, including for miscarriages.

The Nationalist Party has pledged five new initiatives that go beyond what the party said were new EU directives for a work-life balance that especially intend to address self-employed workers and the employee gender gap leave across the country.

The PN has promised to implement these new measures as soon as elected to government, that is, before the EU deadline for August 2022, MEP David Casa, European People's Party (EPP) coordinator for the employment and social affairs committee (EMPL), said in a press conference on Thursday.

Casa noted that all these new measures will be paid by the government.

The PN’s first pledge is for self-employed workers in Malta to start being paid for paternity, maternity as well as parental leave.

Secondly, child minding in the home will be subsidised or tax rebated for those parents (as well as single parents) who are working full time and have one or more child younger than 12  years of age.

Those parents who have a child with a disability will be able to benefit from the subsidies until their child is sixteen years old.

Thirdly, parents who have lost a child either whilst pregnant or have lost a child under the age of 18 will be able to benefit from at least a week of child bereavement leave, the leave amount will be determined on the circumstances.

Fourthly, the PN will increase paternity leave from two days to fifteen working days. The EU mandate obliges paternity leave to increase to a minimum of ten days.

The party is also proposing that parental leave be extended to eight weeks.

Malta, the PN said, is in dire need for new measures that enable parents (as well as single parents) who are working to raise families in a way that is balanced and reflects the life of “modern families”.

As Attard Previ who is also the president of Moviment Nisa noted, in 2019 Malta had the lowest fertility rate in EU which shows how modern families across the country are not managing to achieve a work-life balance.

PN candidates Ivan Castillo and Roselyn Borg Knight were also present for the press conference.