Updated 1.20pm with Labour statement

Police officers forced into quarantine due to COVID-19 should be granted quarantine leave rather than be required to use up their sick leave, a Nationalist Party MP has argued.

Beppe Fenech Adami said that the government was treating police officers like “second-class frontliners” by refusing to grant them a quarantine leave allowance. 

“The government is refusing to treat the police with dignity and respect,” Fenech Adami said. The PN MP serves as Opposition spokesperson for national security. 

The Police Officers’ Union said on Friday that it had written to the prime minister to urge him to allow officers who tested positive for COVID-19 to be granted quarantine leave, much like other frontliners. 

On Saturday, Fenech Adami joined their call and said the prime minister should listen to the union’s pleas. 

“Disciplined forces, including the police, have served as frontliners in the fight against the pandemic,” he said. 

“The PN expresses solidarity with the police who are being discriminated against and urges the prime minister to listen to police representatives and unions and their fair demands for once.” 

'Not credible' - Labour

Reacting, the Labour Party said that the PN was not credible in its criticism.

It was the PN administration which Fenech Adami formed part of which had denied police officers “hundreds of thousands of euro” in overtime payments, the Labour Party said. 

Officers were now receiving those overtime payments and now had the legal right to join a union, the PL said. 

“When the PN speaks out of political opportunism, it ends up reminding people that this government gave police officers greater rights,” it said.