Unpaid or underpaid in Malta: the complaint to DIER, step by step

If your wages are late or short, the Department for Industrial and Employment Relations (DIER) is the place, it is free, and it works for non-EU workers exactly as for Maltese ones. Complaining does not cancel your permit. Staying silent is what costs you money.

When you have a case

• Wages not paid within four weeks of the period they cover.
• Basic wage below the minimum wage or your sector’s order.
• Overtime unpaid or paid at the plain rate where the law says more.
• Statutory bonus or cost-of-living increase missing.
• Deductions you never agreed to, or for things the law does not allow: permit fees, recruitment costs, “training”, fines. The clauses behind them are in the contract traps guide.
• Leave refused, or unused leave unpaid at termination.
• Notice pay not paid after a dismissal.

DIER’s own guidance: wages are due at intervals not exceeding four weeks, and if the employer fails to pay, a complaint can be lodged at the department. Reading your payslip line by line is how you find which of these applies to you.

Step 1: write to the employer

One email or message, polite, with numbers: the period, the amount due, the amount received, the difference. Ask for payment within seven days. Keep it. Most cases end here, and if they do not, the email is the first page of your file.

Step 2: build the file

• Contract.
• Every payslip and bank statement for the period.
• Your own record of hours: roster photos, a diary, the clock-in app.
• The email from step 1 and any reply.
• Names of colleagues in the same situation. A group complaint is heavier than one.

Step 3: lodge the complaint

Call DIER on 1575, the line for employees, or email info.dier@gov.mt, or use the contact form on its site and pick “Complaint about an Employer”. Office at 121 Melita Street, Valletta, weekday mornings. Say what is owed and send the file. DIER opens a case, contacts the employer, and investigates.

If the employer still does not pay, DIER can take the case to court on your behalf. For refused leave, DIER says it will usually ask the court to order compensation.

What happens to your permit

Nothing, by the act of complaining. Your permit depends on your employment, not on your silence. If the employer retaliates by dismissing you, you have 30 days from a termination to find a new employer, extendable by 30 with proof you can support yourself, and the new employer applies. How the change of employer works is on its own page. Tell DIER the dismissal followed your complaint; since November 2025 the authorities can disqualify employers who breach workers’ rights from hiring non-EU workers at all.

Time limits

Do not wait. Claims for unpaid wages have a limit measured in years, not decades, and evidence fades. File within weeks of the first missed payment.

If the company closes or disappears

Tell DIER at once and keep your Jobsplus termination record. A guarantee fund exists for certain unpaid wages when an employer becomes insolvent; DIER’s termination pages describe it. Your grace period starts on the termination date.

What not to do

• Do not accept cash “to settle” without a payslip; you lose the record and the social security credit.
• Do not sign a document saying you were paid in full unless you were.
• Do not leave Malta to “sort it out from home”. The complaint is easier from here.

Who else helps

A union takes the case with you and speaks for you at DIER and the Industrial Tribunal. The organisations in the who-helps-you guide help non-EU workers with the paperwork, free.

Check this at the source

• DIER wages FAQ: four-week rule and complaints. https://dier.gov.mt/en/faqs/wages/
• DIER contact: 1575, email, address, form. https://dier.gov.mt/en/contact/
• DIER, vacation leave: claims for refused leave and compensation at termination. https://dier.gov.mt/en/services/employment-conditions/leave/vacation-leave/
• Identità fact sheet: the 30-day grace period. https://identita.gov.mt/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Fact-Sheet.pdf
• Government press release, 27 November 2025: employers may be disqualified for breaching workers’ rights. https://www.gov.mt/en/Government/DOI/Press%20Releases/Pages/2025/11/27/pr252122en.aspx