A court has ordered Cospicua council to restart the adjudication of a contract for street cleaning after finding that the chosen contractor would have “inevitably” paid employees less than the minimum wage.

In upholding a Contracts Revision Board decision, the court said the council should eliminate those who did not meet requirements and start the process afresh considering only those who submitted valid bids.

The Appeals Court was deciding on an appeal filed by V&A Services Ltd.

The call for tenders was issued in October and the council awarded the contract to the lowest bidder, Raymond Attard  A competing bidder, V&A appealed, claiming Mr Attard’s rates were so low it was “inevitable” he would resort to precarious employment.

The Contracts Revision Board upheld the appeal but V&A disagreed with the board’s recommendation for a new call and filed an appeal claiming the board should have ordered the exclusion of the bidders that did not meet the requirements.

Mr Attard argued that he had not been informed about the new directives on precarious employment, adding that the board had been right to annul the bid so a fresh offer would take the directive into consideration.

The local council argued that precarious work meant employees were not given job security for an indefinite period of time, rather than workers not receiving the minimum wage. The court revoked the recommendation to issue a fresh call for tenders and, instead, ordered the council to eliminate bidders that did not meet the requirements and continue the adjudication of the contract with those that did.