Recruiting Top Talent in Malta

Maltese Top Talent

Hiring the right talent in Malta to expand your company can result in a thriving business with numerous opportunities. However, the recruitment process can be complicated when you have no physical presence in Malta yet. Our PEO and EOR service can be the solution for your company.

Recruitment can be a tricky business, especially when a company is venturing into unfamiliar countries and exploring new markets. This is the perfect occasion to bring in a specialist to oversee the process for you.

The Recruitment Process in Malta

The recruitment process in Malta begins in the traditional way – preparing a job description, locating candidates, reviewing applications, conducting interviews, verifying references, selecting the employee, and drawing up contracts. Familiar options for employers are to post positions on job boards such as Jobs in Malta, Vacancy Centre and on the vacancies’ pages of their own websites.

Malta is a member of EURES, which brings together the public employment services of the European Union’s member nations with those of the European Economic Area and Switzerland. EURES facilitates the free movement of labor across the EU and assists both employers and jobseekers.

Recruitment is time-consuming, and difficult to achieve efficiently if your company is 5,000 miles away, without any physical presence on the island. The talent is there – but with Malta enjoying one of the lowest unemployment rates in the EU, you have to know where to find it.

This is where Bradford Jacobs adds our unrivalled experience of global recruitment. It is vital to know where to locate the finest talent to be a perfect fit for your company’s global expansion plans.

Then we step in to handle the next stage of the recruitment process – hiring and onboarding. Foreign companies opening a legal entity subsidiary must follow strict procedures to register and onboard employees, complying with Maltese law as well as any applicable European Union (EU) directives. 

Procedures include:

1. Obtaining a Tax Identification Number (TIN) online is necessary for completing mandatory annual tax returns. Professional support is advisable for submitting tax returns.
2. Obtaining a Permission to Employ (PE) number, which can be obtained online from the Commissioner for Revenue’s website. The PE number is mandatory for companies operating in Malta to be able to withhold and pay the taxes and national insurance for their employees. These payments are established under Final Settlement System (FSS) tax reporting procedures.
3. Registering with the Employment and Training Centre (ETC, now known as Jobsplus). A form must be completed for every employee engaged, with further forms completed and filed on termination of employment.
4. Employment contracts must also be in place, either fixed-term or indefinite, full-time or part-time.

Legal Checks on Employees in Malta

• Scope: As a European Union member, Malta has strong measures protecting employees against any form of discrimination, which also covers the questions that can be asked during an interview or included in a job description. Background checks are subject to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Malta’s Labor Code.
• Privacy: The employee’s right to privacy must not be unreasonably affected and the employer must have a legitimate reason to obtain the information.
• Discrimination: The employer’s right to make checks cannot include references to racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, disability, age, or sexual orientation.
• References: It is permissible for an employer to verify such areas as academic qualifications, and references from previous employers.
• Criminal Records: If an employer has a valid reason for requesting a criminal record check, due to the nature of the employment, only the applicant can request a Conduct Certificate from the Criminal Records Office.

Basic Facts on Hiring in Malta

Companies hiring staff for expansion into Malta must comply with a framework of laws and regulations on employment and taxation. Apart from statutory laws, Wage Regulation Orders (WROs), collective agreements and European Union directives also come into play.

Companies moving their operations into Malta must comply with various basic requirements on hiring. These include:

• Providing a contract that includes details of salary, overtime, notice periods, work schedule including breaks, payment cycle (which must not exceed four weeks in arrears), place of work and vacations, etc.
• Where minimum contractual requirements are covered by law, only arrangements that are more beneficial to the employee are valid.
• If employment is to be more than one month exceeding eight hours work a week, the employer must provide a contract or written agreement detailing terms within eight days from the start of work.
• Most contracts are either open-ended / indefinite or fixed term, which can be renewed up to a maximum of four years.
• Contracts should include full details of employer and employee, job type and location, vacations and other benefits, type of contract (permanent or fixed term for example), notice and termination details, any relevant trade union, or collective agreements.
• Article 45 of the Constitution of Malta protects employees from discrimination on grounds including marital or social status, gender, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs, trade union or other employment association memberships.
• The constitution also ensures equal rights for men and women at work. It is supplemented by other employment legislation, including the Persons with Disability Act, the Equal Opportunities Act and the Equality for Men and Women Act.

After hiring and onboarding, employers must be aware of other considerations – minimum standards apply to such as sick leave, minimum wages, working hours, maternity allowances, paid vacations, termination, and severance, notice periods and social insurance payments.