The UĦM - Voice of the Workers has suspended all industrial action in the civil service after being promised that talks on pending collective and sectoral agreements would be resumed after the general election.

The commitment was made by the head of the civil service.

Earlier this month the union had ordered industrial action at the Attorney General’s office after the Principal Permanent Secretary called off negotiations that were in their final stages, when the general election was announced.

Lawyers who lead the prosecution in court, were instructed not to continue presenting proof in the compilation of evidence where the prima facie decree has already been given. This risked disrupting major ongoing criminal cases.

The action was lifted on Wednesday.

The union said the vast majority of public sector collective agreements concluded in the outgoing legislature were those involving UĦM. The union insisted that the decision to abruptly suspend negotiations in the aftermath of the election announcement, contrasted with past practice.

In fact ahead of the 2017 general elections, negotiations on several collective agreements continued and in some cases, were concluded. These included agreements for employees at SportMalta, the Housing Authority and the Gozo Channel, the UĦM said.

The union warned that if talks on the pending collective agreements did not resume immediately after the election as promised, it will have no other way than to resort to industrial action once again.