The Malta Confederation of Women’s Organisations brings together 14 organisations. The following are the proposals we would like to put forward for the budget 2009. The proposals are split into 5 main areas namely:
- Women and Work Issues
- National Insurance and Pension Related Issues
- Health Issues
- Co-financing for NGO’s
- Single Mothers
1. WOMEN AND WORK ISSUES
A. Essential Services to support Dual Earner Families
When one looks at the Lisbon Targets for employment one can immediately notice the disparity that exists between the proposed female employment rate of 60% by 2010 and Malta’s current female employment rate of 37%. The low female employment rate is contributing to Malta’s overall employment rate of 55% (Lisbon target for overall employment rate – 70% by 2010).
The female employment rate has been growing at a relatively slow pace during the last years and one of the main contributors to this situation is the incompatibility between the normal working hours and the school opening hours. A person working full time normally works at least 8 hours plus commuting time, whilst school hours can be as short 6 hours or less especially when children start half days in Summer
In order to resolve this problem, the mother in many cases, either:
- Asks her employer to reduce her hours and work part time. This is not always possible especially for mothers working in the private sector who have no legal right to demand reduced working hours.
- The mother often gives up work altogether if she cannot work part time.
- Parents give the key to the children who often stay alone at home until one of the parents returns from work.
The above choices are often constrained choices that parents resort to in the absence of adequate facilities for school aged children. Many Maltese women choose to leave the labour market on having their first or at most their second child. This comes at a very high cost for the families themselves but also for our economy and our country. Lower employment rates mean that there are fewer persons paying NI and contributing to the sustainability of our welfare state and few persons paying taxes.
Proposals
- Set up a unit with adequate funds within the Ministry of Education in order to coordinate with interested stake holders and come up with a feasible plan to gradually introduce before, after school and holiday care services for school aged children. The unit will be responsible for the regulatory framework amongst other things.
- Allocate funds to interested local councils and other entities wishing to introduce these schemes for children of dual earner families.
B. Transition to work after the Maternity Leave Period
Background to the Proposal - Two out of every 3 Maltese women work in the private sector where legally a mother is entitled to 14 weeks paid maternity leave after which she is expected to return to full time employment. The law does not give mothers the right to request flexible work and many mothers at this stage leave the labour market because they are unable to deal with full time work and motherhood.
Proposal
- MCWO are urging government to find ways in making the return-back-to-work after maternity, more flexible for mothers. This can be done by allowing the mother to work part time or reduced hours for a number of weeks or months after the maternity leave period, even for those working in the private sector.
C. Telework
Background to the Proposal : The introduction of Telework in the private sector can help more women and men who have caring responsibilities or other life commitments to remain in the labour market or to increase their working hours create. However employers may incur additional costs to enable their workers to do so and this may deter them from implementing it.
Proposal
MCWO believes that Telework needs to be encouraged further especially in the private sector. This can be done through a scheme, similar to that launched for students in the past by the Ministry for IT, whereby employers are given subsidised equipment and software for their staff members wishing to Telework.
D. Incentives to employers to introduce innovative family friendly measures at the work place
We regretfully note that the proposal mentioned in last year’s pre-budget document to give incentives and rewards to employers in the private sector who introduce innovative family-friendly and inclusive measures or initiatives in the workplace (pg 33) was not implemented.
Proposal
MCWO believes that tax-credits or other financial benefits could be directed at employers who successfully implement flexitime, reduced working hours and other forms of family-friendly measures.
Government could also impose on the larger companies to draw up a yearly gender equality plan to introduce such services.
E. Income Tax refunds
Background to the Proposal : To date refunds are not sent directly to the beneficiary but are sent to the identified head of household, who is often the man. This means that women who are owed a refund by the Income Tax Department, do not receive the cheque themselves, but this is sent to the husband.
Couples are not always on good terms and thus the party concerned may not be informed of such developments and may continue to claim her rights which have already been met. Moreover, in such situations the aggrieved party experiences a double sense of injustice – the lack of information on developments and the handing over to the other party of moneys earned by the aggrieved party
Proposal
Income tax refunds should be made to the employee who is entitled to it not to the spouse/partner designated as the responsible partner for income declaration.
A more comprehensive review of the Income Tax Act is necessary to move towards separate tax computations without having just one head of household in charge of income tax related matters.
F. Father’s Quota for Parental Leave
Background to the Proposal
Statistics confirm that the uptake of parental leave by men is negligible and it is often the mother who takes up all parental leave entitlement with the result that mothers continue to be seen as a liability by their employer.
Proposal
We suggest a father’s quota for parental leave wherein a number of weeks or months are allocated and are reserved exclusively for the father. If the father refuses to make use of the given quota, the couple will then forfeit their right to use that part of parental leave allocated to the father, thus creating a greater incentive for fathers to use parental leave.
G. Temporary Work
MCWO believe that Malta urgently needs to have the necessary legislation in place to create more temping opportunities which will permit a more flexible and secure labour market. Temping work is fundamental to cover periods of absence from work, such as in the cases of maternity leave and career breaks.
H. Assistance to women entrepreneurs
MCWO proposes a one-stop shop for entrepreneurs. It is important to include services that cater for the specific needs of budding and established female entrepreneurs. Malta has one of the lowest female entrepreneurial rates inEurope and therefore any support that can be provided for them would greatly increase the attraction of such work for women.
As part of the one-stop shop for female entrepreneurs, one could include services such as:
- Assistance in filling in of forms and bureaucratic procedures
- Support services prior to the commencement of the business and throughout – business advisory services through consultants who help with business plans, financial planning, bureaucratic procedures both locally and internationally, contacts with foreign agencies, etc.
- Mentoring services on an ongoing basis
- Training services specifically for women entrepreneurs in areas affecting their businesses
2. NATIONAL INSURANCE AND PENSION RELATED ISSUES
Minimum social security payments on Part-time Employment
MCWO suggests that employers should be able to pay one half or 10 per cent of the minimum social security contribution (whichever is the higher) in respect of part time employees whose part time job is their only work, instead of the fixed NI minimum rate as the employer’s part. This measure will ensure that part time work will remain a viable option to both employers and employees who do not wish to work the standard working hours.
Minimum social security payments and the effect on women’s pensions
When persons working only on a part-time basis (who earn less than the minimum wage) decide to pay 10% of what they earn, this may have a negative effect on the person’s pension in that they will not have enough contributions for a full pension. Statistics show that the majority of persons whose primary employment is a part-time job are women, who do so in order to combine work with family life.
In the recent past, government granted a 2 year NI credit per child for mothers who leave the labour market for a period of time to care for their children. However, it is noted that those mothers who choose to work on a part-time basis instead of opting for this scheme, and thus contribute to the Maltese economy, are being discriminated against. Specifically, mothers who, through part-time work, earn below the minimum wage and pay NI at 10% of what they earn, will get a lower pension than those who opt to leave the labour market and not work at all, while benefiting from the NI credit scheme
Proposal
It is also being proposed that a mother/father who opts to work part time to care for a child and who earns below the minimum wage, will have the NI topped up to the minimum wage level for up to 2 years, so that this will not impact negatively on the pension. In the meantime Government should make it extremely clear to persons opting to pay the lower NI (10% of what they earn) on the effect that this will have on their pension.
Further more it is being proposed that parents who take parental leave (especially those working in the public sector who can take 1 year unpaid parental leave for each child and a one-off career break of 5 years) will have their NI credited during this period so that this will not impact negatively on their pension.
Finally in order to encourage women into the labour market, it is suggested that government implements an equitable parity between wage, cost of living and retirement pensions.
Pension System Review – Extending the time credits for parents born between 1952-1961 – Pension Reform
MCWO is concerned that the recent pension reform amendments are discriminatory against parents who were born between in 1952 and 1961. This is because these parents, mainly mothers have all been subjected to an increase (of varying degrees) in the number of years they must work in order to be entitled to a decent pension. In spite of this increase, these women cannot claim for child rearing credits like the other parents born in 1962 or later.
We feel that parents who were born between 1952 and 1961 should be given the same opportunities as those born later and who are covered by the recent pension reform system. This is a clear case of age discrimination whereby women who gave up their careers and their jobs in order to rear their children and then returned to the labour market will not benefit from the NI credits to which other parents born at a later date will benefit from. Such women are now regularly paying their NI contributions and their taxes and should not suffer discrimination because of their age.
In view of this, we propose that these women are given child rearing credits together with a one-time opportunity to pay for those years where NI contributions are missing, as an effect of the increase in contributions needed and brought about by the pension reform.
3. HEALTH ISSUES
A. Breast Screening
MCWO urges government to expand its breast screening programme. We believe that his preventive measure can save lives and reduce the suffering of patients and their families. It can also prove to be cost effective with regard to cost of damage limitation of cancer
B. Sex Education
Recent reports in the media report show that sexually transmitted diseases are increasing from one year to another. Births to single mothers are also on the increase. Thus government should ensure that proper sex education combined with education on responsible parenthood is extended in schools and in the community through health centres.
4. Co Financing Problems for NGO’s in EU funded Projects
Background to the Proposal - NGO’s often work on very limited budgets and have serious limitations when it comes to the co-finanacing of EU projects
Proposal
A sum of money should be allocated in the budget to help NGO’s with their co-financing when applying for EU projects.
5. Single Mothers
A. Tapering-off the benefits for single mothers
Single mothers on social benefits are often reluctant to enter into paid employment because the minute they find a job and earn over a certain amount a week, their social benefits are stopped with immediate effect. As a consequence, if a single mother has her job terminated, she has to wait for several weeks, if not months, before the social benefits are reinstated. This causes untold hardships and often these single mothers cannot even buy day to day necessities for themselves and their children.
MCWO urges government to introduce a system wherein social benefits are tapered off gradually to ensure that during the early stages of employment (especially during the probation period) the single parent is assured of her/his benefits until she/he is established in her/his job. It is also important to ensure that mothers are not left without benefits for weeks before it is reinstated.
B. Help with childcare costs to single mothers
Mothers wishing to work should be given special rebates to help them with their childcare costs.
Reduction in fees for searches for those undergoing separation
Background to the Proposal – Women undergoing separation, have no automatic right to acquire information on their husband’s assets from financial institutions, when more often than not these resources form part of the community of assets, of which half is legally the woman’s. It is only through the intervention of the courts that these institutions divulge this much required information.
It is expensive for a spouse who is entirely dependent on her husband to find the money to undertake searches at the public registry This is because accounts are sometimes held in someone else’s name, or the money is not deposited, or the funds are held abroad. Thus it would be beneficial to introduce special rates for searches at the public registry for these particular cases
Proposal
- MCWO is proposing that Government considers reducing the fees for searches for those undergoing separation this is because Maltese women are in their majority financially dependent on their spouse. Therefore, although hardship of spouses in litigation can be suffered by both men and women, the main sufferers are women and as such this constitutes discrimination on the basis of sex.
- High fees are also charged by the court when an architect is engaged to value the property they have. For this reason Government could also consider introducing special rates for court appointed architects or even perhaps engaging architects who are fully employed by the Court, as is the case with judicial assistants.
