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Malta Chamber of SMEs Head of Policy Mr Andrew Aquilina participated during a conference organised by National Commission for the Promotion of Equality on the occasion of Women’s Day entitled ‘Strengthening equality, Where are we going?’

On the occasion of Consumers’ Rights Day the MCCAA – Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority organised a half-day seminar entitled ‘Strengthening Consumers’ Rights in Today’s Dynamic Market’.

Head of Policy Mr Andrew Aquilina participated on a panel discussion, ‘Regulating online marketplaces: Exploring the impact of modernisation directive on cumsumers and businesses’.

The Malta Chamber of SMEs has met officials from the recently set up ITS Training School which aims to elevate skills in the tourism sector.

Accompanying the SME Chamber CEO Abigail Agius Mamo were representatives from the Licensed Private Education Providers. The SME Chamber said that it agreed with the aim to upskill and all resources must be utilised in the best possible manner to this end, including resources available in the Private Sector.

ATTN: IT systems suppliers that supply ERPs or accounting packages

The Ministry for Finance and Employment and Pagero are organising webinar about the implementation of eInvoicing by the Government of Malta.

This initiative is in response to the European Directive on eInvoicing in Public Procurement (2014/55/EU) which requires all public sector organisations to have IT systems in place to be able to receive and process electronic invoices that comply with the European eInvoice Standard EN 16931.

Please join the scheduled webinar on Tuesday, 21 March at 0930hrs.  This webinar is expected to have the duration of around one hour.

During this webinar you will learn:

• The Government’s approach to eInvoicing;

• What is an eInvoice;

• Basics of the Peppol 4-corner interoperability model;

• How Peppol is being implemented in Malta.

You are kindly asked to register for this webinar via the link https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/5128497594766612832.

Moreover, more information on the Government’s policy on eInvoicing can be found on the Ministry’s web page at https://einvoicing.gov.mt/

Please feel free to forward this mail to anyone else within your organization who wishes to attend.

Recently in Parliament PL MP Rosianne Cutajar called for a national discussion about menstrual leave while delivering her adjournment speech. The particular leave would only be granted to women who, while having their menstrual cycle, go through a lot of pain because they suffer from certain medical conditions such as endometriosis, ovarian cysts, and others.

However Malta Chamber of SMEs CEO Ms Abigail Agius Mamo quickly described this proposal as ‘not practibable’ and ‘unjustified’ in comments to The Malta Indepedent.

CEO of the Malta Chamber of SMEs Abigail Agius Mamo said that there is no justification for the introduction of menstrual leave. “Menstrual pain can obviously be difficult, and there are certain conditions which make this worse, but the sick leave already allows for women to request a day off work due to pain,” Agius Mamo said.

She continued that the doctor is not obliged to disclose the reason why one would be requesting leave and it can be kept private. “We do not see any kind of justification for menstrual leave. The concept could possibly be driven by trying to increase the sick leave days, which are already ample. One can also use their leave days for this,” Agius Mamo said. There have also been increases in the maternity and paternity leave, she added.

Many places of work are also increasing their flexibility and remote working, she added. “There is completely no justification as to why there should be menstrual leave,” Agius Mamo said.

Asked by the Malta Indepdent whether the introduction of menstrual leave could lead to employers preferring to employ men over women, Agius Mamo said that employers cannot really afford to discriminate between males and females at the moment, however, the wage inflation may make it more unattractive for employers to employ females should the menstrual leave be implemented. “There are instances where one can be unfit for work due to any kind of ailment. These are usually handled with discussions between the employee and the employer,” Agius Mamo said.

“We need to be extremely careful with something like menstrual leave. They expect to come up with these proposals with completely unjustified and indirect expectations for employers,” she said, adding that the burden of having to cover this leave would fall on the employer. The situation for employers is already difficult, as many are short-staffed, and the level of service is diminishing, Agius Mamo continued.

“It is very unrealistic to consider something like this,” she said.

The Measures and Support Division within the Ministry for the Economy, European Funds and Lands have launched a Grant Scheme for the Renovation of Private Sector Buildings to support investments to address high upfront costs of building renovation in the private sector, including commercial buildings.

This Grant Scheme will support eligible micro, small, medium and large enterprises to undertake actions that reduce the primary energy demand of the building by reducing the energy used for heating, cooling, ventilation, hot water and lighting.

Applications are open from March 1 till April 28, 2023. More information on the scheme can be accessed here.

Information Sessions

Interested enterprises are invited to attend one of two information sessions to be held online by the Measures and Support Division and Servizzi Ewropej f’Malta (SEM) on March 9 between 11:00 and 11:45 or on March 16 between 14:00 and 14:45.

During the information sessions, participants will be provided with more information on the funding call, allow you to gain more awareness of SEM’s funding assistance services, and raise any queries one may have.
Attendees can register and choose the information session of their preference through this form.

Attracting and retaining the best employees is a challenging task. Organisations depend on the HR team to source and retain the right employees. Sometimes, particularly when the labour market is highly competitive or talent is scarce, even the best sourcing teams may need reinforcements. Many companies consider Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) which is seen as being a partnership to guarantee that the employees are engaged and retained successfully.

The need for Recruitment Process Outsourcing varies from one company to another. Some companies prefer to use RPO services as an extension of their HR team, others may require help with specific recruitment drives on a sporadic basis, whilst others may need to replace their talent acquisition specialist who is on long leave to be able to continue the recruitment processes successfully in their absence.

There are times where a company would require assistance with the full recruitment function including meeting the managers to understand the role requirements and come up with a person profile, issuing recruitment advertising campaigns, shortlisting and interviewing candidates up to making job offers, and onboarding candidates.  At other times, some companies might require assistance in just one part of the process, such as shortlisting the applications received, interviewing candidates, handling skills and psychometric assessments or assistance with onboarding.

Recruitment Process Outsourcing is not only used by companies who do not have an HR function internally, but also by HR teams who need a helping hand in order to focus on the more strategic parts of the HR function in their organisation. RPO is known to offer a higher rate of productivity for the company and reduces the costs of recruitment.

Our experience also shows us that outsourcing someone to specifically assist the company with the recruitment process actually reduces the amount of time spent on recruitment projects due to having a person specifically trained in recruiting individuals focusing purely on this task.

We believe that Recruitment Process Outsourcing is about building partnerships, for this reason developing a strong and lasting relationship is key for us. For RPO to work, the individual working on the project needs to take the time to understand the company culture, employer brand and the different but unique office dynamics. This understanding allows the RPO service to become an integral part of the company’s HR team and helps to create a more successful process for the company.

This article is supported by Misco Malta.