Three Gozo Ministry employees facing involuntary homicide charges are being given favourable treatment, the Nationalist Party said on Monday as it flagged the government’s inconsistent approach to suspending public sector employees.

The three men stand accused of causing the death of 52-year-old maintenance worker Carmel Attard, who died when the ceiling of a Xewkija public toilet he was repairing caved in. 

They were charged after a magistrate concluded that there had been negligence by Attard’s superiors in the case. 

Despite facing criminal charges, none of the three has been suspended, with the ministry saying they had an “exemplary record” and faced charges of having committed a crime involuntarily. 

That explanation did not wash with the Nationalist Party, which on Monday said the government was adopting a “two weights and two measures” approach to such cases.

It said that the Gozo Ministry had, in the past, adopted a much tougher line with other people who faced much less serious criminal charges. 

“We need to ensure that there isn’t discrimination between civil servants,” PN MPs Darren Carabott, Ivan Castillo and Alex Borg said in a statement. 

“In such cases, decisions must be based on their merits or the gravity of charges, not who those people are,” the PN MPs said. “We cannot have the rule of law when the government has one law for Gods and another for animals.”

Over the past two weeks, national orchestra CEO Sigmund Mifsud was suspended on half-pay after being charged with crimes and Manoel Theare CEO Massimo Zammit was suspended after accusations about him were referred to the police.