Probation officers are still only handling a handful of cases as the industrial action ordered a month ago remains in place, The Sunday Times of Malta has learnt.
Confirming that the action is in force, UĦM Voice of the Workers assistant director Edwin Balzan said that despite the industrial action being ordered over a month ago, the government had yet to bring to the table “acceptable proposals”.
Mr Balzan explained that the union and the government had been in talks about a new collective agreement for well over a year, with the most recent development resulting in the ordering of action. Consequently, some 24 probation officers have only been dealing with 15 cases daily, as opposed to some 60 cases per day.
The remaining case files that the officers were not going through were being passed on to the director, Mr Balzan went on. 

“We want to resolve this as soon as possible. We have no interest in issuing such directives but we have no other option and our priority remains ensuring workers’ rights are protected,” Mr Balzan went on, warning that harsher directives would be ordered in the coming days. Asked whether he envisioned a strike being called, the UĦM assistant director…