The government should strive to ensure all workers enjoy equal pay for equal work, the UĦM Voice of the Workers told Prime Minister Robert Abela on Thursday. 

Union representatives met with the prime minister for the first time since he took over office in January. 

In comments ahead of the talks, UĦM CEO Josef Vella told Dr Abela that while in principle many agreed this should be the norm for everyone, in practice this was still not happening.

Acknowledging the problem, Dr Abela said that he was aware that while efforts had been stepped up to address this, more needed to be done. 

"I know that this is issue is causing a lot of unhappiness to a lot of people and I have been speaking about this for a long time. 

"We need to change the laws but we also need a change in culture," Dr Abela said. 

The CEO also made a series of other suggestions he said he hoped the prime minister would take into consideration, including a change in the way the judiciary is appointed. 

The promotion of lawyers to magistrates should come after they have undergone some form of training, Mr Vella said. 

He also called for a change in the way public contracts are scrutinised by the Auditor General saying these contracts should be vetted before they are signed off and not afterwards. The union boss also said the vetting should not take months or years. 

The prime minister said he had recently asked the Auditor General about the issues and while the office was carrying out good work, there was little that could be done to speed up the process since the contracts being investigated were often complex and probes required certain time.

"But I understand your point. I promise there will be transparency and accountability with every public contract. I guarantee this will be the case and I take responsibility for this," Dr Abela said. 

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