The Employment Agencies Regulations came into effect on the 1 January 1996. These Regulations are intended to regulate Employment agencies who are engaged in an activity of bringing together and matching people looking for employment and job opportunities.
On the other hand, the Temporary Working Regulations stems out from the Directive 2008/104/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 19 November 2008 on temporary agency work and was transposed into Maltese law on the 5 December 2011. These Regulations regulate Temporary Work Agencies who assigns, whether on a regular or on an irregular basis, the temporary agency workers to user undertakings to work there temporarily under their supervision and direction, whether or not such activity is the main or ancillary activity of the temporary work agency.

The purpose of the new changes is to standardise the conditions of employment agencies, to establish clear procedures, to enforce licence conditions and to ensure that qualified and competent individuals are committed to this endeavour. The new regulations shall come into force on 1 April 2024.

The new regulations will affect employment agencies who render the following services to user
undertakings:
Recruitment services
Temporary work services
Outsourcing services (contracting and sub-contracting)

Recruitment services encompass any activity in bringing together and matching people looking for employment and job opportunities. In other words, employment agencies carrying out recruitment services solely focus on recruitment and selection of workers and do not enter into a contract of employment or an employment relationship with the worker.

Temporary work services refer to the provision of workers with a view to making them available to a third party which assigns their tasks and supervises the execution of these tasks.

Outsourcing services refer to the provision of workers with a view to making them available to a third party under the supervision, direction and control of the outsourcing agency (contractors and sub-contractors).