An agreement has been reached on a new six-year financial package worth €1.27 billion as part of a new collective agreement for 33,000 employees in the public administration, Times of Malta has learnt.

During the first year of the collective agreement, public service workers will benefit from collective salary increases up to €70 million, sources close to the negotiations confirmed.

The government and 10 unions are currently chiselling out the final text of the agreement but all parties have already put pen to paper on the financials.

The collective agreement is expected to be ready for formal approval by the end of November.

“Nobody is complaining about the finances. The package is a good one,” sources said.

There has never been a collective agreement for public service workers that is likely to be signed before the current one expires- GWU general secretary Josef Bugeja

General Workers’ Union general secretary Josef Bugeja described the package as “the best one” for as long as he can remember.

“Also, there has never been a collective agreement for public service workers that is likely to be signed before the current one expires,” he said.

“The fact that it will be signed and will come into effect as from January 1, is already a significant success.”

Signed in April 2017, the current collective agreement expires in December 2024.

Josef Vella, CEO at UĦM Voice of the Workers, agreed and emphasised his union’s commitment to refining the mathematical formulas to ensure fair and equitable salary increases aligned with each grade, while preserving internal pay relativity.

Josef Bugeja, GWU general secretary, left, and Josef Vella, UĦM CEO, both expressed their satisfaction at the financial package for 33,000 employees in the public sector.

‘A perfect ratio’

“I am satisfied because we have managed to achieve a perfect ratio.”

Vella said that for the first time the government has agreed to include the additional COLA mechanism, introduced last year, within the framework of the collective agreement. 

This mechanism entitles all public service employees to receive the entire cost-of-living allowance even when it is merged into their annual increment agreed in their respective sectoral or collective agreements.

Discussions about a new collective agreement for public service employees started in April and were chaired by the head of the Public Service, Tony Sultana.

Sources said the collective agreement is expected to include a range of other benefits. 

Overtime payments, previously capped at salary scale 10, have now been revised, and workers up to scale 7 performing overtime will be paid at the basic salary rate.

A qualification allowance will also be available for public service employees with an MQF Level 7 qualification.

Salary increases exclude others that have already been agreed upon and were granted in other sectoral agreements.

The unions that are party to the agreement include the GWU, UĦM Voice of the Workers, the Medical Association of Malta, the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses, the Malta Union of Teachers, the Malta Police Union, the Police Officers Union, the Union tal-Protezzjoni Ċivili, the Union Periti u Inġinieri tas-Settur Pubbliku and