A police union is calling for a change in legislation that would allow officers to strike.
The police are among those who recently signed a collective agreement with the government, granting them the right to join a union and to be covered by an insurance policy while on duty.
But according to the law, while the union can negotiate conditions of employment and participate in dispute resolution procedures of a "conciliatory, mediatory, arbitral or judicial nature" on behalf of its members, "it shall not be entitled to take any other action in a disciplined force in contemplation or furtherance of a dispute".
On Friday the Malta Police Association said it was clear that legislators wanted "an absolute prohibition of the union's right" to strike.
This went against a 2013 Council of Europe ruling where in a European Confederation of Police vs Ireland case, it was decided that "there is a violation of Article 6(4) of the Charter on grounds of the prohibition against the right to strike of members of the police'"