PN MEP David Casa has criticised the government for “sticking to the bare minimum” in its implementation of the EU’s Work-Life Balance directive in an opinion piece penned in The Malta Independent.

Casa was the European Parliament’s lead negotiator on the Work-Life Balance Directive.

Malta’s implementation of the directive means that fathers will benefit from 10 days of fully paid leave, as opposed to the single day of leave offered by the current law. Regarding parental leave, parents will now be entitled to two months paid leave at the national parental leave rate.

Casa said however that the government only implemented the bare minimum which was stated in the directive, noting that the directive from Europe is not meant as a target, but as a starting point.

“While it obliges Member States to adopt minimum standards if their laws are below the Directive rights, it also invites them to go beyond the minimum,” Casa wrote.

He noted how a majority of EU member states offered at least two working weeks for new fathers, with some going as high as five working weeks.

“Sticking to the bare minimum is not the way to go. Yet this is the path the Labour Government took,” Casa wrote.

He said that the directive has been amongst the most anticipated pieces of legislation to be enacted and has been coming for years, but he lamented how the Maltese government only waited for the final days before the transposition deadline of the directive to implement the legal notice.

“The Maltese Government should not miss the opportunity that the Work-Life Balance Directive creates to improve our workforce’s work-life balance and gender equality in society. It should revise its policy on pay, and create a model whereby the private sector would not have to finance all the measures,” he said.

The full opinion piece can be read here.