Malta’s Quarantine Rules Forcing Some Parents Of ‘Primary Contact’ Children Into Unpaid Leave
Some parents are being forced into unpaid leave after staying at home with their quarantined children, even though they aren’t in mandatory quarantine themselves.
The problem has arisen following the lifting in January of quarantine rules for adequately vaccinated “secondary contacts”, people who live in the same household of “primary contacts”, individuals who have come into contact with a positive COVID-19 case.
Primary contacts must still quarantine though – for a week if they’re fully vaccinated and for two weeks if they aren’t.
Yet if the primary contact is a young child and the secondary contact a working parent, the situation becomes something of a catch-22.
As the working parent wouldn’t be legally in quarantine, they would still be expected to turn up for work. However, they wouldn’t be able to leave their child at home alone either, and roping in another adult to take care of them would breach quarantine rules.
Lovin Malta spoke to a mother who recently found herself in this quandary after her daughter was quarantined as her classmate tested positive for the virus.
To compound matters, she works as an educator and is only entitled to 31.25 hours of vacation leave per scholastic year (due to educators’ summer leave), nowhere near enough to cover her daughter’s two-week quarantine period.
“I have ended up with unpaid leave for two weeks,” she warned. “Half my salary for the month of February will not be given to me and I’m dependent on a full salary. Then people wonder why couples are not having children anymore or why the education sector is in shambles and why no one wants to work in this sector.”
And by eating up all her 25 hours of vacation leave at one stretch, she must now use her unpaid leave if an emergency arises for the rest of the year.
Health Minister Chris Fearne
“We have been thrown in the deep end with concrete blocks tied around our ankles and we’re being asked to swim,” she warned, while pointing out the irony in the fact that she wouldn’t have been in the situation had she not gotten boosted… as that way she would have been quarantined with her daughter.
Lovin Malta asked the Health Ministry what options working parents have in this situation but was referred to the Department of Industrial and Employment Relations (DIER) on the grounds that vacation leave is an employment issue.
DIER has not responded to questions sent about this issue.
Malta is set to update its quarantine laws on 21st February, with quarantine for primary contacts reduced from seven to five days.
The next step will be to end quarantine for primary contacts entirely and then to start easing the rules for people who positive cases.
Should Malta update its quarantine laws?
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