Updated 5.43pm 

Archbishop Charles Scicluna had "hitched his cart to the Nationalist Party" and waded into partisan politics to maliciously attack the General Workers' Union, the union said in a statement this afternoon. 

The GWU was responding to a tweet published by the Archbishop yesterday, in which he wrote that it was "shameful" that a workers' union would be earning €300 off each worker employed as part of a new government scheme.

The scheme will see the GWU take over the Community Work Scheme of the Jobs Plus agency, with each of the 600 workers to be employed earning the minimum wage. 

In its reply, the GWU said that the Archbishop had never shown any indignation or called for justice when Church bodies had made use of such workers while paying them just 75 per cent of the minimum wage, "without rights and working in precarious conditions under the previous administration's scheme."

It also noted that the Church enjoyed the services of 19 such workers "without paying for them". 

The Community Work Scheme, the GWU said, would ensure all workers were entitled to "dignified" working conditions and was part of the union's work to eliminate precarious employment. 

Archbishop meets with Education Minister

Archbishop Scicluna, Employment Minister Evarist Bartolo and Jobs Plus Executive Chairperson Clyde Caruana met today to discuss the new GWU scheme, one day after the Archbishop had voiced concern about the scheme. 

Both Mr Bartolo and Archbishop Scicluna used social media to comment on the meeting, with both men saying the meeting had gone well. 

In a tweet, the Archbishop acknowledged that the new scheme would "give workers more rights", though he reiterated his belief that any surplus should go to workers.

Archbishop Scicluna was even more adamant in a subsequent tweet. The GWU, he wrote, would be making around €115 for each worker it employed through the scheme. "GWU should declare costs and give the rest to the workers," he wrote. 

Minister Bartolo, meanwhile, wrote on Facebook that the Archbishop had said that the new scheme gave workers more dignity. 

Under the new scheme, Mr Bartolo wrote, workers would receive €700 a month and be entitled to sick leave, bonuses and other benefits. Under the previous scheme, such workers made €546 a month and were not entitled to benefits, he wrote. 

Minister Bartolo wrote about the meeting on Facebook.