The government has to address pension injustices, Alternattiva Demokratika said.

Spokeswoman for Social Policy and Civil Rights Angele Deguara said that the government had a moral responsibility to see that social justice was carried out in the case of a number of former employees who were previously employed with the Malta Electricity Board.

In the 1960s, two cabinet decisions and an official circular made it clear that these workers were identical to government employees and that they would be entitled to the same pension conditions.

However, they were never given their rightful pension.

A recent court ruling found that these pensioners should have been given equivalent pension entitlements like those given to government employees but, because the case had become prescribed, the court could not enforce this right.

So AD was urging the government to take the necessary action to ensure that social justice is done.

Spokesman for EU and International Affairs Arnold Cassola said there were other pension anomalies including that the disabled were only entitled to 55 per cent of the minimum wage, leaving them with a pittance for a pension.

Another anomaly was that a person working on two part-time jobs had a pension based on two thirds of only one part-time job. 

Another strong anomaly concerned pensioners who had their foreign government or private company pension subtracted from their Malta two thirds pension in the 1970s.

Subsequent governments did not solve this injustice.

Chairman Michael Briguglio said that AD’s electoral manifesto addressed these injustices.

“In particular we are calling for compensation for pensioners for having been deprived of the pension they were due. We are also calling for a review of the disability pension to ensure a decent quality of life. Progressive revenue measures could make up for such costs,” he said.