Workers in part time jobs in Malta are required to work average weekly hours which are calculated to be under 40 hours, which is the baseline for a full-time worker. The only exception to this rule is in cases when a full-time employee has a contract with reduced hours.
From the employer’s standpoint, it’s important to ensure your total hours of part-time work do not average over 40 weekly hours through an entire year, otherwise you will from that point on be officially regarded as a full-time worker. Please note that any overtime hours you do will not count towards your total hours of work, so make to pay attention to your contract and check with your employer if you feel any clarification is due.
Pro-rata (Proportional Allocation) Entitlements for Part-Timers
As a part-time employee, you are entitled to similar benefits as those offered to full-time employees. The same principle applies no matter if you have a main full-time job in addition to your part-time job. Your benefits as part-time worker are based on a pro-rata allowance which is determined from your total hours of weekly work. Your entitlements include a weekly allowance as well as statutory bonus; you also get to rest on all public holidays, leave on vacation and sickness, on marriage, birth, bereavement, injury and other leave scenarios as established by the Maltese law.
How to Determine Your Pro-Rata Entitlement?
As the term suggests, pro-rata (or proportional allocation) is calculated as the proportion of weekly hours you work as a part-timer, compared to the benefits offered to a full-time worker in the same position.
Since a full-time 40 hour week worker is entitled to 192 of vacation leave each year, a part-time worker doing (for example) 24 hours a week is entitled to 120 hours (that’s 25/40×192).
If your weekly working hours are not regular, the way to calculate pro-rata for part time jobs in Malta is by doing an average of the hours of work you do weekly in each quarterly period comprising 13 weeks.
