€12 million has been set aside for the second calendar year with the intention of being used to rectify past injustices affecting 6,100 people, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna and Family Minister Michael Falzon announced in a press conference on Tuesday.
In the coming weeks, these people will be receiving a cheque which will signify their second payment.
The measure is part of the Budget for the upcoming year as well and will affect three sets of people; former members of the public service, police officials, and former port workers. Some 3,000 former public service officials will receive compensation, whilst a further 2,500 or so police officials will also receive compensation.
This will apply to former members of the public service who started work in public service after 16 January 1979, former port workers from between 2 April 1973 and 1 June 2007, and police officials who worked unpaid overtime between 1 September 1993 and 31 December 2009.
Applications for compensation must be tied with the withdrawal any cases against the government on these said injustices, Scicluna said.
Falzon meanwhile said that these payments were being conducted in tandem with the respective unions, and that in terms of the police force the injustices even stem back to a collective agreement signed 16 years ago, wherein measures on overtime were specified but not adhered to in subsequent years.
In the case of the police officials, Falzon said that half of those owed are still serving within the corps, however the other half have either retired or passed away. In the case of those passed away, their heirs will gain the compensation instead.
Both Scicluna and Falzon put emphasis on the fact that the government had no legal obligation to rectify these injustices, however they felt that they had the moral obligation to rectify these injustices anyway.
Falzon said that measures like this were an example of how an administration can work together in harmony, saying that many different ministries - Family, Finance, Home Affairs, and Infrastructure - had been involved in reaching an agreement