Questions clients ask
Short answers to the questions I am asked most often about senior exits and restructuring in Malta. They are general information, not advice on your situation.
Leaving a senior role
My employer wants me to leave. What should I do first?
Do not agree to anything in the room. Ask for the proposal in writing and note any deadline. Then gather your contract, any side letters, the bonus and share plan rules, and the policies your contract refers to.
The first offer is drafted by the other side and is rarely their best. Take advice before you respond, and before the next meeting if you can. An exit review tells you where you stand within days.
Can my employer simply dismiss me?
Not without reason. Once probation is over, an employer in Malta may end an indefinite contract only on grounds of redundancy or for a good and sufficient cause, such as misconduct or poor performance that has been properly handled (Employment and Industrial Relations Act, Cap. 452, article 36).
If there is no such cause, the dismissal may be unfair, and you may file a claim at the Industrial Tribunal. Being senior does not take these protections away, though it usually changes what is worth fighting for. For how the Industrial Tribunal treats a dismissal where the procedure was not followed, see Fenech v MFSA and Voortman v VistaJet.
How much notice am I entitled to?
The law sets a minimum that rises with length of service, from one week to a maximum of twelve weeks. For technical, administrative and managerial roles, the contract may agree a longer period, and senior contracts usually do. The full scale is in notice period. If your contract gives more than the law, the contract applies.
Check whether your employer may pay you in lieu of notice or put you on garden leave instead. Both affect what you can do next.
Is there statutory redundancy pay in Malta?
No. Maltese law does not give a redundancy payment on top of notice, or pay in lieu, and accrued entitlements such as untaken leave. Anything beyond that comes from your contract, a company policy, a collective agreement or negotiation. See notice period.
That is why a senior exit is negotiated rather than calculated. The figure you leave with depends on your leverage, not on a statutory formula.
I am on a fixed-term contract. What if it is ended early?
If the employer ends a fixed-term contract before it expires without good and sufficient cause, the law entitles you to half the wages you would have earned for the rest of the term. With a long term left, that can be worth more than notice under an indefinite contract. A contract may also set its own payment on early termination: see Schembri v National Orchestra, where the Court of Appeal upheld a three-year payment.
Check too whether a run of fixed-term contracts has, in law, become an indefinite one.
They are making my job impossible so that I resign. Do I have a claim?
Possibly. Maltese law recognises constructive dismissal, where the employer's conduct leaves you no reasonable choice but to resign. The bar is high and the evidence decides it.
Do not resign before taking advice. Keep a dated record of what is said and done, and keep copies of emails.
Can they put me on garden leave?
Garden leave keeps you employed and paid during notice, but you stop working and stay away from clients and colleagues. Whether your employer can impose it depends mainly on your contract.
It matters because time on garden leave may count towards, or be set against, a non-compete period. Agree how the two fit together before you sign anything. The garden leave page goes into more detail.
Will my non-compete clause stop me joining a competitor?
Not necessarily. Maltese courts ask whether a restriction protects a legitimate interest and is reasonable in its length, area and scope. A broad or long restriction may not be enforced.
Testing a covenant after you have left is slow and uncertain. It is usually better to negotiate a release or a narrower restriction as part of the exit. An exit review covers this. A separate duty can apply to opportunities entrusted to you: see Associated Supplies v Mizzi.
I hold an MGA key function or an MFSA approved role. What changes?
Your exit has a regulatory side. The employer must notify the regulator, and what that notification says about your departure can follow you to your next role. Agree its wording as part of the exit.
Plan the handover too. The employer needs a replacement approved, which gives you some leverage over timing. See key function holder and executive exits.
How long do I have to file an unfair dismissal claim?
Not long. The time limit to file at the Industrial Tribunal is four months from the dismissal, and negotiations do not stop the clock.
If talks are dragging on, take advice on protecting the claim while you keep negotiating.
Should I sign the settlement agreement?
Only once you understand what you are giving up. A settlement agreement usually ends every claim arising from the employment, in exchange for a payment: a full and final settlement. In Maltese law it is a compromise, with the effect of a final judgment between the parties.
Check the amount and when it is paid, the tax treatment, what happens to your awards, the covenants, confidentiality, the agreed announcement and your reference. Once signed, it is very hard to undo. See negotiation and settlement. How a release was presented can matter later: see Portelli v Recowatt.
How is a settlement payment taxed?
It depends on what each part of the payment is for. Pay in lieu of notice and bonuses are usually taxed as income. Other elements may be treated differently.
See pay in lieu of notice. Get your tax adviser's view before the split is agreed, not after. If you benefit from the Highly Qualified Persons rules, check how leaving affects them. I flag these points; I do not give tax advice.
Can I agree my exit terms before I accept a new role?
Yes, and it is the best time to do it. Notice, change of control, leaver terms and covenants are far easier to change before you sign than after you start. See incoming executive review.
Restructuring, for employers
When will a redundancy stand up?
When the role genuinely goes, the selection follows the law, and the process is handled with care. Within the class of employment affected, the law expects the employee last engaged to be the first to go.
If the same post becomes available again within one year, the person made redundant is entitled to be re-employed in it (right to re-employment). Most failed redundancies fail on one of these points. See selection pool, is it redundancy or unfair dismissal? and restructuring advisory.
When does a redundancy become a collective redundancy?
When the number of dismissals within 30 days reaches the thresholds in the Collective Redundancies (Protection of Employment) Regulations (S.L. 452.80). The threshold depends on the size of the workforce, from ten employees in smaller establishments to thirty in the largest.
Once it applies, you must consult the employees' representatives and notify the Director General for Industrial and Employment Relations, and the dismissals cannot take effect until a set period after that notification. See collective redundancy. On timing and information, see the case notes on Degiorgio v Air Malta and Tomann.
Do we have to involve the union?
Where staff are represented by a recognised union, consultation runs through it, and a collective agreement may add procedures of its own. Where there is no union, the law sets out who represents the staff: see employees' representative.
Even where it is not strictly required, early and honest engagement reduces claims. I have spent much of my career on the union side of these talks, so I know what makes a consultation credible. See services for employers.
We are selling or outsourcing part of the business. What happens to the staff?
If it is a transfer of business under the Transfer of Business (Protection of Employment) Regulations (S.L. 452.85), the employees move to the new employer on their existing terms. Outsourcing, a change of contractor and bringing work back in-house can all count: see service provision change. The transfer itself is not a lawful ground for dismissal.
Both employers have duties to inform and consult. Treating a transfer as a redundancy is a common and costly mistake. See restructuring advisory. Debts already earned before the transfer can stay with the seller: see Cassar v Montekristo Vineyards.
How do we part with a senior executive without a dispute?
Decide first what you actually need: the leaving date, the handover, the covenants, the regulatory notification and the announcement. Then make an offer that a well-advised executive can accept.
A settlement agreement that is fair on its face is signed faster and holds better. See services for employers.
Does the Pay Transparency Directive affect a restructuring?
It can. Malta has transposed Directive (EU) 2023/970 through the Equal Pay (Transparency and Reporting) Regulations, 2026 (L.N. 173 of 2026). They require pay structures based on objective, gender-neutral criteria, give workers the right to written information about pay, which the employer must provide within eight days of a request, and require employers with 100 or more workers to report on their gender pay gap.
A restructuring that redraws roles, grades and pay bands should be checked against them before it is announced. See pay transparency and equal pay and the 2026 pay transparency rules.
Working with me
Do you act for employees or for employers?
Both, but never on both sides of the same matter. Before I take anything on, I run a conflict check. See enquiries and confidentiality.
How do you charge?
By the hour, at a rate confirmed in writing before any work starts. An exit review has a fixed scope agreed in advance. See how I work.
Do we need to meet in person?
Usually not. Most work is done by video call, email and shared documents. When a meeting helps, we meet in Valletta or at your offices.
Is what I tell you confidential?
Yes, from the moment I receive it, whether or not I go on to act for you. Please keep a first enquiry short and do not send documents until the conflict check is done. See enquiries and confidentiality.
A question not answered here?
Tell me briefly where things stand. I reply within one working day.