Health workers at St Vincent de Paul Residence have had their working conditions enhanced with payments backdated to January 1 this year, following talks between the Ministry of Solidarity and their employer.

The announcement was made in Parliament yesterday by Minister Michael Farrugia, answering a question by Labour MP Anthony Agius Decelis.

Dr Farrugia added that similar talks with a second employer were at an advanced stage. This was being done in spite of the fact that the contracts in both cases had not yet expired.

This was the government’s way of dealing seriously with the issue of precarious working conditions for private sector employees

This, said the minister, was the government’s way of dealing seriously with the issue of precarious working conditions for private sector employees. The minister originally fielded a PQ by Jason Azzopardi (PN) about why a contract for security services at Social Security branches, previously handled by the police, had been awarded to a private security firm. Paula Mifsud Bonnici (PN) asked what would happen in the case of an incident when the security firm did not have the clout of the police.

Dr Farrugia said that when, as a family doctor before the change of government, he used to visit social security branches, there had been many times when police presence was completely missing, even though police had been assigned.

This meant there was much less security than with the private firm today.