New Employment Right – The Right to Transparency

Today the 27th of August, LN112 of 2025 comes into force. This Legal Notice amends the Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Regulations of 2022 (S.L. 452.126). The amendment came about in view of the imminent coming into force of the Pay Transparency Directive (Directive 2023/970) of 10 May 2023, which shall be transposed by all EU Member States by the 7^th June 2026 at the latest. LN 112 of 2025 implements a number of provisions of articles 5 and 7 of the Directive.

The new amendment first and foremost grants rights to ‘applicants for employment’ which is a novel concept in this particular legislation, since until now, rights and entitlements have only been afforded to employees.

An “applicant for employment” is defined as any person seeking employment and who is being considered for engagement with a prospective employer. By virtue of the amendment, applicants for  employment  now have the  right  to  receive  from  the  prospective  employer information about  the  initial  pay,  or  its  range,  to  be attributed to the position concerned. Where the employer is governed by a collective agreement, the applicant for employment shall also have a right to receive the relevant pay provisions of the collective agreement which apply to the role being filled. It is crucial to note that such information shall be supplied before the actual start of employment.

Although the second element of the amendment does not relate to ‘applicants for employment’, it is a new concept at Maltese employment law nonetheless. By means of a new regulation 5A, the law introduces the right of all workers to request their employer, at any time during employment, their individual pay level and the pay levels for categories of workers performing the same work as them. Where there is a collective agreement regulating employment relationships within the company, the assessment of who performs the same work as others might be an easier task than it is in respect of other entities where there is no collective agreement in place and thus where the assessment is possibly carried out internally by the employer.

Furthermore, the new law defines “pay level” as that referred to in the [new] right to request which the employee now has. The pay level is indeed defined as the gross annual pay and the corresponding gross hourly pay, the latter particularly relevant in the case of part time employees.

The last insertion of the amendment qualifies the abovementioned right to request. Indeed, when employees avail themselves of the right to request their individual pay level and the pay levels for categories of workers performing the same work as them, the employer is obliged to provide the requested information within a reasonable period of time. As the Directive itself states, the reasonable time means a period of time not exceeding two (2) months from the date on which the request is made.

As it can be seen therefore, the Maltese legislator has now implemented some of the provisions of the Pay Transparency Directive. In doing so, every potential employee now has a right to ask for information before employment, and every employee has the same right at any point during employment. The employer does not need to know the reasoning of the employee behind the latter’s request. What is certain is that whatever the intention, the employees now have more visibility over the pay levels of their colleagues at the same place of work.