All hands on deck! How Europeanised is the Maltese labour market?

Abstract

This paper investigates the Maltese labour market within the context of the Europeanisation process. It explains the EU’s labour market policies and presents studies in the field. The main focus is the case study of Malta, which evaluates formal and informal structures of the economy and uses the dynamics of the interaction of ideas, interests and institutions to analyse whether and how Europeanisation of the Maltese labour market has occurred. The findings indicate that different changes have occurred in the legislative framework, language and values about work, but resistance and continuity are evident in other areas such as flexicurity, undeclared work and a high level of female labour market inactivity.