The government is set to table a bill in Parliament which will provide a form of assurance, or insurance, to all civil workers conducting their work in good faith and who do not engage in gross negligence, Prime Minister Robert Abela said during an interview on party media on Sunday.

The Prime Minister said that he has spoken in the past months about legislative remedies which he believes should have been implemented so that members of the civil service who are working in good faith according to their best abilities are not exposed to “vicious political attacks”.

He continued that the government will soon be presenting a bill to address this matter. He remarked that if the government were to listen to the Opposition, then they would be told to do nothing and to leave civil workers exposed to attacks.

“Everyone is susceptible to making mistakes… everyone makes genuine mistakes,” Abela said. He said that through this law, the state will be there to protect workers if someone seeks them out in court.

To provide an example, he said that if a permanent secretary were to make a decision in good faith but happened to make a genuine mistake in their work which was not caused by gross negligence, and they were to be sought out and receive a garnishee order as a result of that mistake, then the state would intervene.

Abela said that some time ago, a permanent secretary spoke with him and told him that they were scared to make certain decisions out of fear that someone would try to attack them and seize their property.

Abela commented that it is in this type of circumstance that the government wants to give assurance, meaning that if someone enacts a garnishee order on a civil worker when there is no gross negligence or bad faith, then the state will immediately intervene including in the garnishee order stage so that the state can give the necessary guarantees for the order to be lifted and for the civil worker to continue receiving their wages.

The Prime Minister stated that the government will be enacting this in the coming days, before parliament adjourns for the summer. “We will not adjourn before this law has been implemented,” he remarked. He continued that he wants to see a civil sector which is the motor for the implementation of the programme of the government’s work.

“I think it was very unjust what occurred in the previous months, being the strategic intimidation which took place. Five years ago, there were strategic attacks on members of the Armed Forces of Malta because they went out to save lives,” the Prime Minister said.

He continued that “these attacks were done by the same person who this week was found guilty by the court of appeal for slandering Carmelo Abela,” as he added that there has been no apology from the Opposition as of yet regarding this situation.

Prime Minister Abela was referring to lawyer and former PN MP Jason Azzopardi, though he did not mention him by name.

Abela continued that the same individual, “who at the time was an Opposition MP,” involved members of the AFM in an inquiry, and added that there are still ongoing constitutional procedures which are pending.

Prime Minister Abela described the proposed law as a strong one, as saying that a lot of thought went into it as there are many angles to examine. He added that there are certain categories of workers who already have such an assurance, but that there are other workers who in the past have been put in the situations the law addresses because they carried out their work in good faith.

“This law will give our workers the absolute peace of mind to carry out their work without fear that someone will personally attack them,” he commented.

Abela has touted this reform ever since two former Permanent Secretaries and one current Permanent Secretary were criminally charged in connection with the Vitals hospital deal.

Speaking on other topics, Abela also announced that work was ongoing for a new measure for the introduction of leave for parents whose children are receiving treatment at the Neonatal Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (NPICU) – an intensive care ward for children up to three years of age.

The idea was first brought up by PL backbencher Romilda Zarb during a parliament plenary sitting.

Abela also spoke of how since the start of May, the government has completed eleven sectoral agreements, including that of the AFM. He said that with these agreements, the government has positively improved the work quality and conditions of many workers. He commented that when one has an economy that is performing well and establishing wealth, then it is the job of the government for that wealth to be distributed in a manner which everyone can benefit from it.

The Prime Minister also spoke of how the government has implemented reforms in the judiciary and the executive following reports from international institutions such as the Venice Commission. With that said, however, he commented that one of the recommendations made by an international institution was not able to be implemented due to the Opposition voting against it. He was referring to a reform which would have made it so the sitting Chief Justice would be consulted when their successor is being chosen.

Abela added that the Opposition also voted against increasing the number of constitutional courts, as well as raising the judiciary retirement age by two years, as he remarked that the Opposition did not provide any plausible reason for voting against such reforms, which he described as strengthening governance and the rule of law.