Housing Authority employees will receive a “symbolic” pay rise despite its deficit expected to double to some €5 million next year, according to Social Solidarity Minister Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca.

The pay increase for some 120 employees, which ranges between €600 and €1,000 per year including cost-of-living increases, was set in a “long overdue” collective agreement signed between the authority and the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin.

We are facing a situation where some 400 tenants could end up on the streets

The agreement was originally meant to be signed back in 2010 but this was held up due to a series of disputes over workers’ financial packages.

Ms Coleiro Preca described the wage increase as symbolic but important.

“We would have liked to give the employees the wage increases they wanted but in the end we settled on a fair arrangement, especially given the current financial situation.” she said. She also warned that if several housing schemes were not revised hundreds of tenants would be forced to vacate properties.

“We need to plan better. We are facing a situation where some 400 tenants could end up on the streets,” she said.

Ms Coleiro Preca said poor management of several housing projects had contributed to the worsening of the “worrying” financial situation – last June the authority’s deficit was pegged at €2 million.

A restructuring of the authority and the introduction of transparency measures would be the first steps in fixing the situation, she said.

An audit was carried out on the authority earlier this year and Ms Coleiro Preca said a management restructuring was under way.

“There is a serious need to introduce a number of financial controls.

“The authority has to be more transparent,” she said.

UĦM president Jesmond Bonello agreed, insisting a review would not negatively affect the authority’s employees.

He said the collective agreement had been finalised since January 2011 but talks over the revision of employees’ financial packages had stalled its implementation. “At the end I think we’ve reached a win-win situation,” he said.