New Rules on the Information to be Provided to Employees

The Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Regulations came into force last Friday, the 21st October 2022, implementing the Transparent and Predictable Workings Conditions Directive (2019/1152). The Regulations lay down minimum requirements on the working conditions applicable to every worker in the European Union who has an employment contract or relationship.

The Regulations set out a longer list of information to be provided to employees, building on the list which already existed under the Information to Employees Regulations. Specific information is to be provided to employees who are outworkers and employees who are required to work outside of Malta for a period in excess of four weeks. The Regulations also provide a list of records which the employer is bound to keep in respect of every employee, which list was already provided for in the Information to Employees Regulations, with some minor additions.

A prohibition has been introduced preventing changes from being made to conditions of employment after the commencement of employment, unless the change is a result of a change in the law or a collective agreement. Another prohibition is that of zero-hour contracts – a contract where a minimum number of hours are not guaranteed to the employee, except in the cases where the nature of the activity requires the availability of replacement of workers on short notice and that work is not the employee’s full-time work or where the employee is a full-time student. The final prohibition is on preventing a worker from taking up employment with other employers outside that employee’s work schedule unless there are objective grounds for this prohibition such as protecting business confidentiality or avoiding conflicts of interests.