PN pledges shorter working weeks for disciplined forces

The Nationalist Party has pledged shorter working weeks for disciplined forces members, from the current 46 hours to 40 hours.

PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami said that a new PN government will immediately kickstart the process to revise a 1993 collective agreement that established a 64-hour working week, beyond which officers could claim overtime.

He also pledged to honour the current government’s commitments to compensate current and former officers for unpaid overtime.

“This is a radical proposal for these workers, and a PN government will have the courage and willpower to implement it,” he said during an interview on NET TV. “The time has come for disciplined forces to have more quality time, to add more officers, deploy them more effectively, and fine-tune the current rosters.”

Fenech Adami also said that a PN government will add the COLA to the services pensions of retired officers, ensure that police officers get paid for extra duties within two months, and reduce income tax on the first €10,000 of extra duties from 15% to 10%.

“We want to reward hard-working people, people who spend long hours working for their families,” he said. “I don’t think we should impose excess taxes on people who work hard.”

The PN deputy leader also pledged to introduce special allowances for district police officers and implement family-friendly measures to encourage more women to seek a career in the police force.

He also said that police presence will be boosted in “hotbeds of crime” such as Paceville, Bugibba, St Paul’s Bay and Marsa, and that the government will “create conditions” to reward officers assigned to those areas.

“Police officers shouldn’t consider it to be a punishment to be assigned to Paceville, but rather a plus.”

With regards the Corradino prison, Fenech Adami pledged to improve work conditions of staff and living conditions of prisoners and to focus on the rehabilitation of inmates.

“A society whose prisoners come out of prison as even more hardened criminals is a failed society,” he said.