A new collective agreement has been signed between the government and Correctional Services Agency officials, Prime Minister Robert Abela has announced

The new agreement marks the first improvement in working conditions over the last 30 years for officials working in Malta’s correctional facilities and will see €3 million invested in correctional facility workers. 

Addressing a press conference together with Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri, Abela said that shortly after being sworn in as Prime Minister he had been told by Camilleri that various sections of the country’s disciplined forces needed an improvement in their working conditions, given that some of them were still working without a collective agreement. 

He thanked the country’s disciplined forces for their support of Malta’s COVID-19 containment efforts, adding that they were essential to dealing with the “biggest national challenge since the second world war”. 

Their work, he said, was central to the government’s vision for a more secure country. 

Abela said that the agreement with prison wardens marked the closing of a historic cycle that will have seen an improvement in the working conditions for all law enforcement forces. 

“Our colleagues at the Corradino Correctional Facility will also have better and stronger working conditions,” Abela said, adding that an agreement reached with members of the police corps in 2017 had formed the basis of subsequent agreements reached with other sectors.  

Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri said that despite the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the government was still choosing to invest in workers’ conditions.

He said he was proud that for the first time, all of the country’s forces will have their employment governed by a collective agreement. 

In addition to a wage increase, Camilleri said that the new agreement will also show a greater appreciation for the job done by these workers through an improvement in their working conditions. 

He said that by the end of the year, the government will have invested €15 million in the country’s roughly 5,000 disciplined forces.

What do you make of this agreement?