Probation officers are still only handling a handful of cases as the industrial action ordered a month ago remains in place, The Sunday Times of Malta has learnt.

Confirming that the action is in force, UĦM Voice of the Workers assistant director Edwin Balzan said that despite the industrial action being ordered over a month ago, the government had yet to bring to the table “acceptable proposals”.

Mr Balzan explained that the union and the government had been in talks about a new collective agreement for well over a year, with the most recent development resulting in the ordering of action. Consequently, some 24 probation officers have only been dealing with 15 cases daily, as opposed to some 60 cases per day.

The remaining case files that the officers were not going through were being passed on to the director, Mr Balzan went on. 

Harsher directives in the coming days

“We want to resolve this as soon as possible. We have no interest in issuing such directives but we have no other option and our priority remains ensuring workers’ rights are protected,” Mr Balzan went on, warning that harsher directives would be ordered in the coming days. Asked whether he envisioned a strike being called, the UĦM assistant director would not rule out such a possibility.

The officers are tasked with supervising offenders who are not handed an effective prison sentence but instead put on probation. This period can last from one to three years. When it comes to suspended sentences, a probation officer may be required to shadow the offender for up to four years.

Sources who spoke to The Sunday Times of Malta on condition of anonymity insisted that the issue impacted hundreds of people who were out on probation but still required constant monitoring in order to properly function in society. As a result of the issue, offenders on probation were more frequently resorting to their old ways, the sources claimed, a problem that often also impacted those closest to them. 

Apart from cases involving such offenders, probation officers are also tasked with drafting reports for those requesting parole, with the sources saying that this process, too, was affected as a result.

Questions sent to the Home Affairs Ministry on the matter remained unanswered by the time of writing.

In recent years, the Director of the Department of Probation and Parole, Miriam Sevasta, had lamented that probation officers in Malta were stretched too thin, telling this newspaper that a team of 24 was tasked with following some 1,000 offenders.

 

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