Bus owners were paid almost €165,000 in state subsidies after staging a four-day strike 2006, The Sunday Times has learnt.
Although Public Transport Association president Victor Spiteri was unable to confirm whether any subsidies had been received for the strike days in February and March 2006, the Transport Ministry said €164,300 (Lm70,550) had been paid out.
Bus owners are currently in dispute with the ministry because the government deducted around €240,000 for a four-day strike last July without first going for arbitration.
According to the ministry, the association had threatened another public transport stoppage, which was then averted. Mr Spiteri said the issue would now be taken to arbitration.
The association had accepted a daily deduction of €11,000 for each of last year's strike days, but wanted the government to make a payment for the fares it failed to collect, an average of €49,000 per day, the ministry said.
Last year the government guaranteed bus owners a total daily income of €60,000 by agreeing to make up for any shortfall in ticket sales.
According to the ministry, the association collected a daily average of €49,000, meaning that the government was paying out €11,000 in subsidies.
The daily guaranteed income does not include any other income which bus owners make from unscheduled bus services, including school transport.
In 2006, the guaranteed daily income was €52,900. Initially the Malta Transport Authority had said it would give bus owners a €95,000 penalty for the strike, but this was later reduced to €47,200 - €5,700 less than the guaranteed income for a day.
According to the Transport Ministry, the penalty was "halved as a gesture of goodwill". The 2006 strike had ground public transport and school buses to a halt as bus drivers were locked in disagreement with the authority over subsidy and reform issues.
The situation was repeated last July when another four-day strike brought public transport to its knees. Bus drivers were also involved in violent incidents.
Since the Malta Transport Authority was founded in 2002 bus owners have staged two major strikes.