A company barred by the government from bidding for public contracts has secured a court warrant provisionally lifting the ban and the case is scheduled to be heard in two weeks’ time.

On Monday the government announced that Gafa Saveway and another cleaning company, Clentec, had been handed a two-year ban after breaching laws against precarious employment.

However, on the same day of the announcement, heads in the public sector were informed that the ban on Gafa Saveway was being temporarily suspended, with no explanation given.

Times of Malta has learnt that 24 hours after being blacklisted, Gafa Saveways secured a warrant from the court halting the ban. In its application to the court, the company said the directors, Antonio, Paulette and Dominic Gafa, had been found guilty after allegedly breaching laws on precarious work when they had not even turned up in court.

Their lawyer Edward Gatt argued they could not have been found guilty in the circumstances and the court provisionally upheld the request. The case is set to be heard on June 26.

Clentec on Tuesday filed a judicial protest saying the decision to ban them was illegal and abusive. It said it had been one of the first companies to approach trade unions in an attempt to combat precarious working conditions.