The Police Commissioner yesterday said there was no outstanding overtime to be paid to members of the force despite a judicial protest by nearly 1,500 officers making such claims.

Asked about the judicial protest during a seminar on the idea of policemen being allowed to join a union, Commissioner John Rizzo said: "I can put your minds at rest that every hour worked outside the normal hours have been paid for."

Last October 1,473 police officers, including senior ranks, from a force numbering about 1,800, put their names to the protest against the Police Commissioner claiming that unpaid overtime they said went back to 1993 should be settled.

They claimed they had neither been given time off in lieu for hours worked, in breach of a 1993 agreement.

Reacting to the mention of the judicial protest by Labour's home affairs spokesman Michael Falzon during the seminar, Mr Rizzo said: "When I was discharged from hospital, I checked whether there was any overdue overtime but found nothing of the sort."

Smiling, he then added: "I don't think it would be wise to continue any further but if it is accepted (the judicial protest) I will receive a sum too."

Mr Rizzo also tried to avoid taking a stand on the question of whether police officers should be unionised. He said he did not want to be brought into a situation whereby police officers did not follow orders on grounds that what they had been told to do was outside their job description.

"I am not giving my opinion about whether the police should be allowed to form part of a union or not but just that there is more to the issue of whether they should be allowed to strike or not," he said.

He also spoke somewhat critically about the idea of giving policemen the right to work reduced hours, saying that even though he saw nothing wrong in it "as a father", as a Police Commissioner he could not really allow it as it could jeopardise the service given to the public.

To sustain his point, he pointed out that 25 per cent of the force was made up of women (who were more likely to make such a request) but emphasised that even men had taken to make such requests. For him to accept to introduce such a right, there would have to be more police officers available, he said.

No government representative attended the seminar, organised by the General Workers' Union. Justice Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici was expected to take part but GWU deputy general secretary Michael Parnis said he would not be attending.

As things stand, police officers are barred from forming a union by law but Labour Party deputy leader Anġlu Farrugia, a former police officer himself, and Dr Falzon said most policemen felt that their rights were not being protected and it was about time that the law was amended.