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Already in Malta: changing jobs, probation, notice and your rights

Probation is six months by default. Notice depends on length of service. On a Single Permit the new employer applies before you resign. What DIER does about unpaid pay.

Updated 5 November 2026 · 5 min read

You can leave a bad job in Malta without losing your right to be here, if you do it in the right order. The rules on probation, notice and leave are written down by the Department for Industrial and Employment Relations (DIER) and they apply to you whatever your passport says. Here is what they say, and the one trap for Single Permit holders.

Probation

Six months, by default, for an indefinite contract. The parties may agree on less, never more, except for technical, executive, administrative or managerial staff earning at least twice the minimum wage, where it can be a year.

Fixed-term contracts get proportional probation: a third of the contract if it is under six months, rising to six months for contracts of sixteen months or more. A renewed contract for the same work gets no new probation.

During probation either side can end the employment without giving a reason. After your first month, one week’s notice applies.

Notice periods

After probation, notice follows your continuous service with that employer:

ServiceNotice
More than 1 month, up to 6 months1 week
More than 6 months, up to 2 years2 weeks
More than 2 years, up to 4 years4 weeks
More than 4 years, up to 7 years8 weeks
More than 7 years1 extra week per year, up to 12 weeks

Longer periods can be agreed for technical, administrative, executive and managerial posts. DIER states the established period cannot be extended otherwise. Give notice in writing and keep a copy.

On a Single Permit: do not resign first

Your permit is tied to your employer. Resign with nothing lined up and the clock starts.

The right order:

  1. Find the new employer and sign a contract with them.
  2. The new employer submits a change-of-employer application to Identità and pays the fee, €600 since August 2025. The new employer may need to advertise the job first; Identità’s checklist says what applies.
  3. You keep working for the old employer, or serve your notice, while it is processed.
  4. You start the new job only when Identità gives you the interim receipt or the new card. Starting earlier is illegal for the employer and dangerous for you.

If you are dismissed or the company closes, you have 30 days to stay in Malta and look for a new employer, for terminations from 1 August 2025. A further 30 days can be granted if you prove you can support yourself. Use the days. Do not go silent.

Nobody may charge you for this change. Not the old employer, not the new one, not an “agent”.

Unpaid wages

Wages must be paid at regular intervals not longer than four weeks. If they are not, DIER’s instruction is simple: lodge a complaint with the department. Employees call 1575 or email info.dier@gov.mt. DIER investigates, and where the employer does not pay, it can take the case to court for you. Bring your contract, payslips, bank statements and a note of the dates and amounts.

Non-EU workers hired since 1 October 2025 must be paid by bank transfer. A cash-only employer is already breaking the law.

Leave, the basics

  • Vacation leave. At least 192 hours a year on a 40-hour week, plus the hours of any public holiday that falls on your weekend. Up to half can be carried forward by agreement. Leave is taken by agreement with the employer; once agreed it cannot be cancelled by one side alone.
  • Sick leave. Set by the Wage Regulation Order for your sector. Where none applies, two working weeks a year, calculated in hours, on a medical certificate. After that, sickness benefit from Social Security.
  • Public holidays. Paid, for every full-time employee.
  • Statutory bonus. Four payments a year, around €512 in total, on top of your salary. The amounts are on DIER’s wages page.

Your sector’s Wage Regulation Order can give more. It never gives less than the law.

Being pushed out

An employer who wants you gone cheaply will try one of three things. Each has an answer.

  • “Sign this resignation.” Do not. A resignation forfeits your notice pay. On a Single Permit, resign only once the new employer’s application is in.
  • “We are putting you back on probation.” Impossible on a renewed contract for the same work.
  • “Your permit is cancelled, leave now.” The employer cannot cancel your right to the grace period. Call DIER and go to Identità.

Where to turn

  • DIER, 1575 for employees, Melita Street, Valletta. Conditions of work, unpaid wages, dismissals.
  • Jobsplus, the public employment service. Vacancies, your employment history, courses.
  • A union. The two large ones, the General Workers’ Union and UĦM Voice of the Workers, take individual members and go with you to DIER and the Industrial Tribunal.
  • Identità, for anything about the permit itself.

Check this at the source

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Rules change. The official sources linked at the end are the final word.

Never pay anyone for a job in Malta. If someone asks for money, it is a scam. No agents →

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