Malta’s parental-leave war: Women’s lobby slams ‘90s mindset’ of business chiefs

**Women’s lobby says Malta Chamber is out of touch on family leave debate**

A leading women’s rights coalition has accused Malta’s most powerful business lobby of “living in the 1990s” after the Chamber of Commerce argued that longer, better-paid parental leave would “strangle” small enterprises. The clash, which erupted during parliamentary committee hearings on a draft law that would give each parent four months of non-transferable paid leave, has reopened a raw national wound: how to reconcile Malta’s booming economy with one of the EU’s lowest female-workforce participation rates.

“Listening to the Chamber, you’d think every shop in Valletta is about to collapse if a father takes two extra weeks off to bond with his new-born,” quipped Dr. Lydia Gatt, spokesperson for the Women’s Rights Foundation. “They are recycling the same scare stories they used against the 2014 maternity-leave extension—stories that never materialised.”

The Chamber’s written submission warns that “mandatory, fully-paid four-month quotas for each parent” would cost Maltese businesses €42 million annually and “deter hiring of women of child-bearing age.” Instead, it proposes keeping the current 18-week maternity leave as a “family unit,” allowing couples to split the time as they wish. Chamber CEO Marisa Xuereb told MPs that micro-firms “can’t be Amazon” and risk losing clients to “freelancers in Sicily who don’t carry these burdens.”

But activists say that argument ignores cultural realities. Only 2.3 % of Maltese fathers take the measly 10 days of paid paternity leave already on the statute book—one of the lowest uptakes in Europe. “If the leave is labelled ‘mum’s time’, men won’t touch it,” said Gatt. “Quotas are the only way to smash the stigma that caregiving is ‘nisa business’.”

The debate is freighted with symbolism in a country where the Virgin Mary’s image still peers from taxi dashboards and where Sunday mass attendance, though declining, hovers around 40 %. University sociologist Dr. Sandra Scicluna points out that the “myth of the self-sacrificing Maltese mother” underpins everything from property ads (“3-bedroom, perfect for the young family”) to political rhetoric. “When the Chamber says flexibility, many hear: let mummy stay home,” Scicluna said. “That message seeps into school career guidance, into grandparents’ expectations, into girls’ own aspirations.”

The numbers are stark. Eurostat figures show 74 % of Maltese men aged 30-54 are employed, against 54 % of women. The gap costs Malta an estimated 6 % of GDP annually, according to a 2023 Central Bank study. Yet the island simultaneously imports thousands of foreign workers to fill labour shortages. “We’re paying double: lost taxes from our own women, and social-security contributions for imported labour,” said economist Dr. Stephanie Fabri. “Family-friendly policy isn’t charity; it’s infrastructure.”

Small-business owners are divided. In Sliema, café-owner Rebecca Borg implemented a six-month fully-paid parental scheme for her 12 staff last year. “Two dads took it. Productivity rose; turnover dropped to zero,” she said. But in Qormi, textile importer Marco Pace predicts “chaos”. “If my accountant disappears for four months, who processes VAT refunds? I’ll hire a man next time,” he admitted bluntly, illustrating exactly the prejudice quotas aim to counter.

The government, which has pledged to close the gender-gap by 2030, is treading carefully. A leaked draft suggests a compromise: four months per parent paid at 75 % salary, with a “temporary opt-out” for firms under 10 employees until 2027. Brussels is watching; EU funds worth €200 million are conditional on meeting social-equality milestones.

Back in Valletta, activists have erected a pop-up “Daddy & Me” playgroup outside Parliament, where fathers change nappies under media cameras. “Culture shifts when men proudly push prams in Republic Street,” Gatt said. “The Chamber can keep quoting Excel sheets; we’re quoting our daughters’ futures.”

Whether MPs side with spreadsheets or prams will shape not just next year’s Budget, but the very texture of Maltese family life. As one placard put it: “If business can’t survive babies, it’s not babies that need fixing.”