Police union orders members not to man barriers during feasts in fresh dispute over work conditions

Police officers have been ordered by their union not to carry out fixed point duties with barriers during feasts and other events as part of an industrial dispute over work conditions.

The directive is one of several issued to police officers by the Malta Police Union on Thursday in an ongoing dispute with the Police Commissioner.

The MPU said the situation within the police force was "dire" and the government was not willing to improve matters. "The MPU notes with disappointment that the government is not willing to improve matters in the police force, and day after day, the situation is worsening. With a strategy that leads nowhere, the police force was never in this dire situation," MPU said.

The union said that over the past 18 months, over 300 officers left the force, adding that the Police Commissioner implemented policies that limited the amount of overtime and extra duty on payment.

The union directives that will come into force on Friday 1 July at 6am, include:

• Police can wear their police issued baseball cap;
• Police can wear their police Issued T-Shirt for all duties (except Court and Tribunal), together with their police identification tag;
• Police must not perform fixed duties with barriers during feasts and events;
• Police should only accept reports which occurred in the district they are performing duty in;
• Police should not submit any statement of facts when requested by their superior, except when this is to be entered into the NPS report as part of an investigation;
• Police should not collect any application of any nature or subject form from Servizz.gov;
• Police should not charge any police issued equipment (mobile phones, radios, torches etc.) at home;
• Police should activate the ‘Out of Office reply’ when ending their duty and refrain from checking emails and Facebook messages when not on active duty or paid overtime to do so;
• Police should ignore any tickets/charges quota requests by their superior and must not submit any tickets/charges returns.

"Members of the police force are not robots which can be managed by an Excel sheet and orders issued en-masse without taking any care to the human and personal aspect of the same officers," MPU said.

MPu said it would take action against anyone who threatened or discriminated against its members, directly or indirectly over the directives.

"The police force and the government must take a holistic approach to address the current exodus of officers, away from the ‘transformation strategy’ which only brought chaos and mayhem upon the members of the police force," the union said.