Malta’s New Wage Supplement Scheme will now subsidise companies based on the losses they incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, rather than what category they appertain to.
Highlights
- The Scheme covers replaced employees in Summer 2020 to be paid from October 2020
- A new and fairer system to help businesses and self-employed who were hit worse by the Covid-19 economic fall-out
- An increased investment in saving jobs, with 60% of applicants retaining current amount of Wage Supplement or higher
The extent of losses incurred will be calculated by comparing companies’ present VAT returns to those of 2019.
Companies that incurred a loss of less than 9% will no longer be eligible for the wage supplement scheme.
In case of businesses which are VAT exempt will be following the previous wage supplement scheme – the Annex A, B and C since there is no basis to compare.
Businesses that had to close down following the issuance of legal notices, such as bars, will receive the wage supplement at its maximum rate, i.e. €800 per month for full-time workers.
Replaced employees included in the new scheme
A new addition to the scheme is that it will cover employees who have been substituted. However this only applies if the employee in question left voluntarily. So for example Employee A left and was replaced by Employee B and such employee was covered by the wage supplement then that wage supplement may be also applied to the new Employee B. The Scheme covers replaced employees in Summer 2020 to be paid from October 2020. The total number of employees on wage supplement cannot exceed that which were getting a wage supplement at the end of May 2020. Furthermore the new employee/s cannot have less favourable conditions than the employee/s of before.
