A salary increase for careworkers in State hospitals and homes for the elderly was signed into being yesterday, nearly two years after concern about their “exploitation” had surfaced in the media.

The collective agreement covers an increase in salaries as it introduces four pay grades and performance appraisals

In September 2011, an inquiry found that the Government’s policy of awarding contracts to the cheapest bidder, coupled with “administrative inaction”, meant that careworkers were being exploited and paid less than other government employees.

Yesterday, Philip Bonnici, a director of Support Services Ltd – which supplies the Government with careworkers for Mater Dei, St Vincent de Paul and Karin Grech hospitals among others – confirmed that its employees received a lower salary than their civil service colleagues.

He insisted, however, that contrary to some media reports, remuneration was not below the legal minimum wage.

Mr Bonnici said if the civil service wanted to solve this problem, tenders had to match the lowest scale pay given to the civil service counterparts.

In May 2011, Labour MP Marie Louise Coleiro Preca pointed out that a number of the contracted careworkers were being underpaid and exploited.

A year later, Care Workers Union – Malta was set up to protect the interests and rights of those employed in public and private hospitals, public clinics and homes for the elderly.

Since then, it has been in negotiations with Support Service Ltd and yesterday signed the first careworkers collective agreement with the company.

Union consultant Manuel Micallef said the agreement covered an increase in salaries as it introduced four pay grades and performance appraisals.

During the press conference, he also expressed the union’s wish that hospital managements would not treat care workers supplied by private companies as inferior to their civil service colleagues.

Speaking before signing the contract, Mr Bonnici said the company had the employees’ interests at heart.

In certain instances, the company also had to borrow money from the bank for its workers’ salaries since the Government had been up to six months’ late in its payment.

He added that 85 per cent of careworkers who left the company returned – this meant that the conditions it offered were better than those of other companies.