Around 5,000 public service workers are set to receive some €10 million in compensation from the government in three schemes to address past grievances, Social Solidarity Minister Michael Falzon told a press conference on Monday. 

The schemes are part of an electoral pledge by the Labour Party in 2013.

This is the fifth round of schemes announced to address anomalies going back some 40 years, with around €50 million expected to be spent in total.

The schemes mostly address changes to the pension law made in 1979, after which public service employees would no longer be entitled to a service pension.

The schemes targets individuals who were engaged in public service entities before 1979 and who later moved on to other government departments.

Last year some 7,000 workers received €12 million in compensation. 

The terms of the three new schemes, which will also be announced in the next Government Gazette, are open and applicable to workers who joined the public service after January 16, 1979 who had previously worked in another Government department, people who were employed in government-owned corporations or public service entities that was founded before 1979 and employees of the Gas Board and apprentices of the Malta Electricity Board who were later employed with Enemalta and dock workers who were licensed between April 4 1973 and June 1, 2007.

Applications for compensation will be accepted until the end of July with payments expected later in the year after a verification process carried out by the Department of Social Security. 

Those who applied under previous schemes need not reapply. When eligible workers had died, applications from heirs must be accompanied by a declaration from a notary.