Updated 1pm - Added GWU reaction

A new Nationalist Party government would "clean up" Malta's cash-for-passports scheme and introduce new stricter conditions for applicants to qualify, party leader Simon Busuttil said today.

Dr Busuttil made the Individual Investor Programme pledge at a press conference this morning in the course of which he also promised to implement a policy of "equal pay for equal work and end a General Workers Union scheme that "makes money off the backs of 600 workers".

Other proposals made by the PN leader included schemes aimed at helping people with long-term illness return to work and ensuring children with a disability could attend summer schools.

READ: PN unveils its good governance proposals

Dr Busuttil said the PN's pledge of equal pay for equal work would especially affect helpers, carers, cleaners and people working in the security sector and insisted the policy would have to be implemented by all public sector departments. 

GWU scheme

The PN would also stop a General Workers' Union scheme through which the union was making money off the backs of 600 workers, he said, and return the money to workers employed through the scheme.

Dr Busuttil was referring to a scheme, first revealed by The Sunday Times of Malta last September, whereby 600 workers were taken off the unemployment register and put to work by the union, which earns a management fee for its troubles. 

Dr Busuttil at this morning's press conference. Photo: Mark Zammit Cordina

Return to work

The PN would also be introducing a 'return to work' scheme to help people who found themselves out of a job because of long-term or chronic illness. 

The scheme would help these workers focus on their health and give them the necessary support - in the form of retraining, psychological support, stamp duty rebates and incentives to employers - to return to work when they were able to. 

Summer school for children with disability

Learning support assistants would be offered work in the summer months, allowing children living with a disability to attend summer schools like all other children. 

WATCH: Election is about principles, not proposals - Busuttil

This would also help parents keep working through the summer months, without having to worry about caring for their child when they were out of school, Dr Busuttil said. 

If demand outstripped the supply of LSAs willing to work during summer months, the government would train new ones, he added. 

Gender equality

A new PN government would make a concerted effort to reduce Malta's gender pay gap - the gap between how much men and women earn. 

Dr Busuttil said his government would seek to ensure that half of all new public sector hires, including appointments to boards, would be women. It would also "substantially" increase the availability of teleworking in the public sector, he said.

'Good governance is my political mission' - Busuttil

Answering questions, Dr Busuttil said that the PN remained unsatisfied with the way in which concerns about voting document problems were handled, and pinned the blame on Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

"He appointed the electoral commissioner, and he didn't even have the decency to consult us on this appointment," the PN leader said. 

He said he would be meeting PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami this morning to discuss new developments. 

Dr Busuttil reiterated his call for either parent to be allowed to use their sick leave allowance when their children were sick. 

He also insisted that the upcoming election was about more than electoral proposals. 

"Proposals will be made by both sides, and I am sure Joseph Muscat will come out with valid proposals. But that is not the point. You can't count on his honesty and integrity," the PN leader said. 

"Neither I nor the PN are perfect. But the most important pledge I can make is clean and good governance. It is my political mission."

'Busuttil is a liar' - GWU

In a strongly-worded reaction, the GWU said Dr Busuttil was intentionally lying when he depicted workers employed through its Community Work Scheme as being employed in precarious conditions. 

"When Simon Busuttil was deputy leader of the PN, workers employed under this scheme earned 75 per cent of the minimum wage and were not considered workers in the eyes of the law, without sick leave or other benefits. That's precarious work," the union said.