Employment rules diverge sharply between Malta's EU-based framework and the UAE's end-of-service gratuity system. We draft contracts and manage disputes on both sides, and handle the secondment agreements that come with moving staff between offices.

Employment rules diverge sharply between Malta's EU-based framework and the UAE's end-of-service gratuity system. Alexander Brown's team drafts contracts and manages disputes on both sides, and handles the secondment agreements that come with moving staff between offices as a business grows across the Malta-UAE corridor.

A contract that works perfectly well under Maltese employment law can create genuine gaps or unintended obligations if simply copied across to a UAE employment relationship, and vice versa. Getting this right at the drafting stage avoids far more expensive disputes later, particularly around termination, which is where the two systems differ most significantly.

This page covers how we approach employment law across Malta and the UAE, and the questions employers and employees raise most often when navigating both systems.

Malta And UAE Employment Contract Drafting

Malta employment law, shaped by EU directives and local legislation, gives employees a range of statutory protections around working conditions, leave, and termination that a contract cannot simply contract out of. We draft Malta employment contracts to comply fully with these baseline protections while still reflecting the specific commercial terms a business needs.

UAE employment contracts operate under a different framework entirely, with the end-of-service gratuity system providing a lump-sum payment on termination calculated according to length of service, alongside its own rules on notice periods, probation, and permissible contract terms. We draft UAE contracts to correctly reflect these requirements, particularly for employers used to a Malta or European employment framework and unfamiliar with how differently the UAE system actually operates.

Termination And End-Of-Service Disputes

Termination disputes are among the most common employment matters we handle, whether that's advising an employer on how to terminate correctly and minimise exposure, or representing an employee who believes they were terminated unlawfully or denied gratuity or other entitlements they were legitimately owed.

Cross-Border Secondment Agreements

Where a business moves an employee between its Malta and UAE operations, whether temporarily or permanently, a properly drafted secondment agreement needs to address which jurisdiction's employment law actually governs the relationship, tax and social security implications in both locations, and what happens to the employee's position at the end of the secondment period.

Workplace Discrimination And Whistleblower Matters

Malta's employment framework includes robust protections against workplace discrimination and for whistleblowers reporting genuine wrongdoing, reflecting broader EU standards in this area. We advise both employers on building compliant policies and employees on their rights where they believe these protections have been breached.

Frequently Asked Questions