The government is working on a plan to address the issue of precarious employment, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this evening.

He said in Zebbug that the idea was to oblige contractors working for the government to offer the same wage structure enjoyed by civil service employees in the same jobs.

The Prime Minister said that it was unacceptable that in some cases contractors were charging the government €12 an hour but employees were only receiving a third of that amount. He said that some 2,700 workers engaged by private firms who have been subcontracted by the government.

On irregular migration, he expressed his concern that the lack of coverage by the international media on the recent spate of tragedies reflected the apathy by the EU to address this issue.

Dr Muscat said that Malta would stand to gain if Socialist candidate Martin Schulz was elected as European Commission President in next week's European Parliament election in view of his views on migration.

The Prime Minister said that even if the PL retained the 36,000 strong majority won in the general election it was highly unlikely that it would win four out of the six seats up for grabs. He said that the results of five years ago was a "statistical fluke".

During his address, Dr Muscat said a family who sent a child to a childcare centre would save €10,000 over three years thanks to free childcare introduced by the government. The figure, he said, was calculated at five hours per day.

He also highlighted other measures taken by the government, such as the waiving of stamp duty for first time property buyers.

During the activity, some people in the crowd waved cheques they had received from the government as the first instalment of the refund of VAT paid on vehicle registration.