'Very difficult' to quantify overtime arrears accurately, Police union president says

Long overdue discussions on overtime pay due to police officers will start this year, Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela announced on Sunday amid questions on how the amounts will be calculated.

The overtime arrears date back to the 1990s – precisely for extra hours worked by officers between 1993 and 2009 – following a dispute with the government over a 1993 collective agreement.

The then new collective agreement promised officers an overtime rate for extra hours worked. The clause was never enforced and officers continued to receive a €23 flat rate for the extra hours until 2009.

In 2009, the Malta Police Association filed a judicial protest signed by 1,500 officers, in which they each claimed they were owed thousands of euros. The clause was subsequently enforced but the arrears never paid.

In its 2013 electoral manifesto, the Labour Party promised to award “an adequate” compensation to the officers for the overtime arrears. The compensation would be spread over a period of time.

The government now appears to be ready to start the discussions, much to the surprise of Sandro Camilleri, the President of the Police Officers Union. 

“We knew that we were going to discuss the matter at some point, but we didn’t know that the government would announce it now,” Camilleri told MaltaToday.

Abela was delivering a speech during an award ceremony for police officers when he made his announcement.

Camilleri said that the total sum owed to police officers cannot be exactly quantified. “The overtime arrears could sum up to millions,” he added, mentioning some possible €60 million.

He argued, that while the MPA had issued a protest, a case was never opened.

“Some of the police officers, including myself, used to work up to 60 hours per week. The previous administration had told us that we were not due any overtime pay.”

Camilleri pinned the overtime work down to “the influx of migrants when many police officers were called in to work at detention centres”.

He went on to question the quantification method that will be used to pay back the arrears and asked what will be given to heirs of deceased police officers.

“It will be very difficult for the authorities to calculate the amount of money due accurately,” Camilleri said.