Prime Minister Robert Abela has spoken up about the situation surrounding the former residents of a Guardamangia apartment block that had collapsed due to construction taking place next door last April.

Prime Minister Robert Abela earlier this week held a meeting with a family whose home had collapsed.

Asked to go into further detail about the proposed measures debated during the meeting, Abela said that the measures government wants to take are still being discussed. He said that the Housing Authority is providing a residence for these people and the Authority is paying. He said that the Authority despite having no blame for what happened, had to intervene and did well to do so.

He said that he believes that the people who lived in that block of apartments should have the right to live in their own residence and not in an alternative residence. The fact that the developer held back in all this and is not giving an alternative remedy for the mistake he made, for the failures he had is not acceptable. Abela explained that there is another family in the same situation and he will also be meeting them.

Asked what can be done for these people, he said that discussions are under way to see what remedy can be provided.

He emphasised that at the end of the day, even though the government is intervening in any way it can, developers should carry the weight and responsibility for these misfortunes.

Abela was fielding questions just after a meeting he held with the General Workers' Union.

Asked about equal pay for equal work, he said that this is a subject that he has been speaking about since 2017 and believes in it. He said that it improves the conditions for workers and improves productivity.

He said that the principle of two people doing the same job in the same work place being paid differently has been addressed in government entities, "not completely addressed but there was a substantial improvement, and this also needs to be addressed in the private sector. Workers should take the same pay for the same work. If we are on the same shop floor around the same table doing the same job, then the workers should have the same pay as well. I believe employers will be with us and together we can make this important change."

Asked about possible changes to law, he said that the law today allows for employees not to be paid the same for the same work as they would be employed by someone different. So you can have a worker employed by employer A, another by employer B being paid differently even though they would be doing the same work in the same work place. To address this situation eventually a change in law would be needed."

Abela did not give a confirmed deadline of when this will be introduced in the law but he is committed to see this through as "it is not a matter of 'if' it will be implemented but 'when' it will be."

Questions about whether the legal office he used to have will keep on selling passports were also put forward and he said that this will not keep on happening.

He also denied the recent claims that Egrant belongs to the Labour party. Prime Minister Abela said that it was "Jonathan Ferris who told an ex-PN leader that Egrant is of the Labour party."

He added that there have been much speculation on who Egrant belongs to and before there is proof that the Labour party owns it he will deny such a claim. "I will proceed according to the conclusions made by the current Magistrate as I have full confidence in him."

Asked if he will be putting forward both the government's and the opposition's proposals for the election of the police commissioner, Abela said that they have already spoken to the Venice Commission and he is sure that the government's proposal follows its guidelines while the opposition's proposal is not plausible.

Asked if they communicated with the Venice Commission before or after they made their proposal, Abela did not give a concrete answer as "the important thing is that there was communication and there is an open dialogue currently as well."

He was also asked about his opinion on the recent surge of concern on cases of domestic violence after Chantelle Chetcuti's violent murder a few days ago. Abela stated that there is an election underway for a new commissioner of domestic violence after Simone Cini resigned from her post a few weeks back and he will be making sure that it is someone who capable and informed on the subject.

"We have to introduce this idea within our culture that domestic violence is not acceptable in our country."