Firm accuses competitors of breaching payment laws

A cleaning company yesterday accused their rivals in a tender bid of paying their employees less than the minimum wage, which was illegal.

Gafa Safeway made the allegation in a judicial protest filed against the Chief Government Medical Officer and the Minister for Social Policy.

The company said it had tendered for a number of cleaning contracts but the authorities were insisting on awarding the contracts to two other companies, which had declared in their applications that they would pay their employees less than a minimum wage.

Gafa Safeway said the Prime Minister had declared that the practice of companies employing persons at below the minimum wage would be investigated because it was illegal. However, the Contracts Department had concluded that the authorities were at liberty to choose the cheapest offer and had referred the issue to the Department of Industrial and Employment Relations to investigate the allegations, the company said.

Gafa Safeway said it expected this would have been taken into account when it came to awarding the tender.

It called upon the authorities not to award tenders to companies that had submitted illegal conditions and held the authorities liable in damages.

Lawyer Edward Gatt signed the protest.