Your legal obligations:
Employers are required by law to notify the Corporation of any new employees by completing an engagement form. Similarly, self-employed persons are also required by law to complete an engagement form.
Employers are also required to notify the Corporation of any termination of employment of any employees by completing a termination form.
These forms are available in the Resources section of our website under Downloads.
We will acknowledge all engagement and termination forms received . Please allow 15 working days as processing time.
Other Legal or Procedural Requirements
1. A new employee on the labour market
If the new employee never worked before, s/he must present the employer the following documents:
- The Identification Card
- The NI 3, which the new employee must acquire from the district office of the Department of Social Security
- In the case of a non-EU national, an Employment Licence issued by the Corporation
- In case of a person born aboard but who possesses a dual citizenship, a certificate from the Department of Citizenship and Expatriates, Castille Place, Valletta has to be issued
When applicable, the indicated certificates must be sent to the Corporation together with the Engagement Form.
2. Restricted Employment of Minors of Compulsory School Age
Legal Notice 110 of 1993 stipulates in Paragraph 6, that:
No person shall employ a minor of compulsory school age except:
- where the Minister responsible for education grants written permission to employ such minor in terms of article 43(1) and (2) of the Education Act; or
- under an apprenticeship indenture or training scheme approved by the Minister responsible for education in virtue of article 43(3) of the Education Act
However, in the case of a new employee under 16 years of age or is 16 during the scholastic year (starting September 15th and July 14th, both dates inclusive), s/he needs an exemption certificate, which may be obtained from the Directorate of Educational Services, Triq Fra Gaetano Pace Forno, Hamrun HMR 1100 (telephone number 21225943)
The following procedure delineates the process a student under the age of 16 years has to follow in order to be authorised to work during the scholastic year or for the summer recess.
The student expressing a wish to work has to pick a School Exemption form from the Directorate of Educational Services from their office in Triq Fra Gaetano Pace Forno in Hamrun (Tel: 21225943)
The form has to be duly filled and signed by:
- Both parents or the parent who has the child’s legal custody or a guardian – who will be approving that the child works during an established time frame, in a particular occupation and with a particular employer;
- The Employer who is promising to provide the job to the child/minor – stating clearly the type of job and the occupation the minor will be working as;
- The child’s current school headmaster/headmistress – who will be approving his/her absence from school to perform the said job.
The prospective Employer is expected to provide to the competent authorities a risk assessment as stipulated in legal notice governing Youth Employment (Legal notice 440 of 2003). A copy of this assessment should be attached to the form at application stage. This will smoothen the process when the application is considered by the Department of Industrial and Employment Regulations (DIER).
The duly filled application and the risk assessment for the particular job the minor is expected to perform are submitted to the Directorate of Educational Services (DES) for their consideration and approval.
If the DES finds no objection in terms of the Education Act that the minor is granted absence from school due to work purposes, the application is forwarded to the DIER for their consideration. Once the risk assessment is attached to the document, the DIER will to process the application and will provide their judgement in terms of the submitted risk assessment. If there are no objections on the part of DIER, they submit their approval of the application to the DES for the eventual issue of the school exemption (or rather the no objection to work). The DIER issue a list of conditions both to the minor and to the employer that both have to adhere to during the duration of the proposed employment.
Once the minor has the DES school exemption, s/he has to go to the Department of Social Services (DSS) to have the National Insurance number issued. The NI number will only be granted upon presentation of the said exemption. This number has to be duly filled in the minor’s engagement form.
The Employer has to fill in the engagement form of the said minor and send it to the Employment & Training Corporation (ETC) on the first day of employment. The engagement form has to have a copy of the school exemption form, supplied by the DES, attached to it. Once the form is processed by ETC, the minor is legally employed in a particular designation, with a particular employer, for a designation period.
The whole process will approximately take 25 days for the eventual issue of a school exemption. Hence, minors wishing to secure an employment have to submit their application to the DES at least a month before the actual start of the employment in order to have the required authorisations issued.
These conditions apply as well for cases related to summer jobs.