Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia said yesterday that he was through  voluminous files in order to take decisions on pending police overtime.

The minister was replying to a question in parliament by Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi who pointed out that Labour had promised to settle this issue, but no funds were provided in the Budget.

€11m are reportedly due.

Dr Mallia said he had discussed the matter with then Police Commissioner John Rizzo soon after the government took over and the commissioner was not very positive.

In 2009 nearly 1,500 police officers, almost the whole of the police force, filed a judicial protest against the Commissioner of Police claiming compensation for unpaid overtime that they said went back to 1993.

They also claimed that they were also not  given time off in lieu for hours worked, in breach of a 1993 agreement.

In June last year, then Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said the government had concluded that the claim by the Malta Police Association for overtime payment was baseless.

Dr Gonzi said the decision had been arrived at following renewed analysis of the provisos of an agreement that had come into force in June 1993, as well as Police Circular 63/93 in September that year.

Last year, the former government gave policemen a pay packet increase that included a one-time payment to each officer of between €1,000 and €1,900 each.