Nationalists paid Mintoffian sidekick €8 million in cleaning contracts

Cleaning contractor Gafà Saveway Ltd was awarded over €8 million in cleaning contracts during the previous legislature and awarded at least one contract which is in breach of minimum wage regulations. 

Ironically, the owner and director of the company is Domenic Gafà, the son of Pawlu Gafà, a driver and helper to the late socialist prime minister Dom Mintoff. Both father and son are understood to have been very close to the former PM and to possess a collection of Mintoff memorabilia.

Information about the cleaning contracts, withheld from the public domain for four years, was revealed in a series of parliamentary answers.

Among the contracts, Enemalta awarded Gafà a tender for cleaning services at an hourly rate of €4.27, which amounts to less than the national minimum wage of €4.05 (that is, the net hourly minimum after universal deductions for social security).

Employers paying the National Insurance of their employees need to pay an hourly rate of €4.40 - anything less implies that the workers are pocketing less than the required minimum wage. However, certain categories of workers - especially those working in the service sector, such as cleaners and security guards, or in the construction industry - are registered as self-employed, meaning that the workers themselves need to pay National Insurance.

A worker registered as self-employed, receiving an hourly rate of €4.27, would then need to pay the 10% social security contribution, taking his wage below the minimum wage rate of €4.05. The Enemalta contract was awarded to Gafà Saveway in 2009 and expired in March. The contractor was awarded other similar contracts from government agencies such as the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality and the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority, the hourly rates for which ranged between €4.96 and €5.30.

Although these contracts seem to be regular, the contractor would presumably also need to deduct for further expenses such as detergents and equipment.

The cleaning contractor was awarded various contracts by the previous PN administration, covering a number of ministries and State agencies.

Gafà received €3.2 million from the health ministry to provide cleaning services at the DECC and a further €330,000 for the ministry's premises, with former contract expiring in 2015. The company received a further €3.2 million from the Department for the Elderly and Community Services. The contract expires in 2015. 

The education ministry alone awarded the contractor more than €1.2 million in cleaning contracts, with the biggest contract awarded being that for cleaning services at the University of Malta, amounting to €919,000 over 24 months.

The University of Malta also paid Gafà Saveway €75,852 for the cleaning services at the Junior College in Msida over 42 months.

The Support Services Division within the ministry also awarded a number of contracts to Gafà, including a tender for the cleaning services at St Clare College in Pembroke. The contract spanning over 15 months between March 2012 and June 2013 costs €35,378.

Gafà Saveway was also awarded the tenders to clean St Ignatious College in Handaq and St Margaret College in Senglea for the scholastic year ending next month. The combined cost of the two tenders amounts over €40,000. 

Other contracts awarded to Gafà include a tender awarded by the The Malta Council for Science and Technology which expires in 2017. The contract's terms stipulate that Gafà is paid €5.97 a hour.

A similar contract was awarded to Gafà by the Malta Sports Council. The contract which expires in 2014 sees Gafà receive €6.13 per person a hour. The total cost of both contracts is unknown as the information tabled in Parliament does not stipulate the number of hours Gafà is being employed.

The company, owned by Dominic Gafà, has in the past been embroiled in a series of controversies surrounding the violation of minimum wage regulations, however the Employment and Training Corporation was among the government entities, which made use of its services.

ETC paid Gafà Saveway a contract worth around €93,000. The contract expires in 2015. During the electoral campaign, the company was outed as the contractor involved in a covert recording that was made public by PN-owned NET News in which General Workers Union boss Tony Zarb was reportedly heard telling the contractor that he would wield his influence over the Labour Party if the party was elected to power.

Sunday newspaper Illum had revealed that Gafà Saveway was awarded a tender that involved precarious working conditions by the Office of the Prime Minister during the Gonzi administration.

The tender was awarded to Gafà in July 2012 despite submitting a tender offer that featured a price that fell short of minimum wage limits established by law.

During the electoral campaign, the Labour Party highlighted the issue of precarity and vowed to eradicate the social phenomenon if elected to office, with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat pointing out that many companies subcontracted by the previous administration employed people on terms which either bordered on the illegal or were outright illegal.

In his May Day address to party supporters last month, Muscat said that his government had sent a clear sign to employers "who play around with workers' rights, who will no longer be eligible to win government contracts" unless they change their ways.

However, he explained that the government would be giving employers time to regulate themselves before being excluded from government tenders.