Overtime arrears of 500 police officers yet to be quantified

The overtime arrears of some 500 police officers have yet to be quantified as discussions on how to settle the pending payments will start this year.

The issue dates back to the early 1990s, when police officers were promised an overtime rate for extra hours worked. Instead, they continued to receive a flat rate of €23. The situation was only rectified in 2009 – 16 years later – following a judicial protest: officers started receiving the overtime rate but never what they were due in the previous years.

Subsequently, in 2013, the Labour Party pledged to give officers “an adequate compensation”. Starting the new year with police officers, Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela reassured them that discussions were to finally start.

Questions immediately arose on what quantification method will be used to meet the payments due. Presented with a set of queries, a spokesperson for the ministry simply replied that “these issues will be discussed during meetings with stakeholders”.

Sandro Camilleri, president of the Police Officers Union (POU), said it will be very difficult to quantify the outstanding payments.

Speaking to MaltaToday, Malta Police Association (MPA) president Malcolm Bondin said the Home Affairs Ministry had yet to quantify the overtime arrears of some 500 officers. These would include officers who retired or passed away.

The MPA will hand in more than 1,500 overtime returns to the ministry, whom he said was “very willing to solve the issue”.

The issue, however, also exposed the rivalry between the POU and the MPA after the latter was accused of “standing idle”. In a video posted on Facebook, Camilleri also said that the MPA had failed to take action after failing to open a case in court.

Bondin told MaltaToday that the MPA chose not to go to court because of time barring. The court case, if won, would only give officers what they were owed for the last two years. In other words, had the MPA opened a court case in 2009, the officers would only receive the overtime arrears dating between 2007 and 2009. Since the issue dates back to 1993, a sample number taken in 2009 showed that officers were owed some €56 million.

“Legal advice sought by the MPA suggested that it would not be cost efficient for the association to file a court case. It would have cost more than €180,000 to open and the association does not have that amount of money,” Bondin added.

He however expressed confidence in finding a solution with the ministry. Bondin went on to add that MPA was not willing to confront any union and would work with anyone ready to seek a solution.