The director of a company which supplies the government with care workers this afternoon admitted that his employees received a lower pay than their civil service colleagues but blamed the government for the situation.

Support Services director Philip Bonnici was speaking following the signing of the first collective agreement for care workers between the company and Care Workers’ Union Malta, which was set up last May.

The company holds the government tender to supply care workers to Mater Dei, St Vincent de Paul, Karin Grech, Mount Carmel, homes for the elderly and residential homes.

In May 2011 and last July PL health spokeswoman Marie Louise Coleiro-Preca had claimed that a number of the contracted care workers were being underpaid and exploited.

The government had commissioned an inquiry and published its conclusions in October 2011.

The inquiry had concluded that the policy to award contracts to cheapest bidder coupled with administrative inaction resulted in a situation where contracted care workers were exploited because they received lower pay than other employees.

When asked about this issue, Mr Bonnici admitted that this was the situation but said it was a problem that had to be solved by the civil service.

To solve this problem, he said, tenders had to at least match the pay given to the civil service counterparts.

He said that, in certain instances, the company had to borrow money from the bank to pay its workers since the government was up to six months’ late in its payment.

The company had not even been given the workers’ cost of living adjustment for 2012 but it was still given to the employees.

Mr Bonnici said that 85 per cent of care workers who left the company returned. This meant, that the conditions it offered, were better to those offered by other companies.

Union consultant Manuel Micallef said the union’s wish was that the care workers would not be treated in an inferior way to their colleagues in the civil service.