€2 billion was invested in police, teachers, civil protection and civil servants.
Confirmed by Prime Minister Robert Abela at the November 2024 PSCA signing — he stated the public-service deal was 'one of nearly 140 sectoral agreements concluded since 2022, representing an investment of around €2 billion in wage increases alone'. The headline anchor is the 2025-2030 PSCA at €1.27bn over six years for 33,000 workers; add predecessor 2022-2024 PSCA, the teachers' agreement (2023), police corps agreement (2023), and Civil Protection sectoral agreement, and the cumulative wage envelope lines up.
Confirmed by Prime Minister Robert Abela at the November 2024 PSCA signing — he stated the public-service deal was 'one of nearly 140 sectoral agreements concluded since 2022, representing an investment of around €2 billion in wage increases alone'. The headline anchor is the 2025-2030 PSCA at €1.27bn over six years for 33,000 workers; add predecessor 2022-2024 PSCA, the teachers' agreement (2023), police corps agreement (2023), and Civil Protection sectoral agreement, and the cumulative wage envelope lines up.
We tested AAS's claim against (1) the November 2024 Public Service Collective Agreement (PSCA 2025-2030) signing documentation, (2) the predecessor 2022-2024 PSCA, (3) the separate teachers', police corps, and Civil Protection sectoral agreements, and (4) Maltese Government Budget 2022-2026 disclosures of public-sector wage commitments.
True. Confirmed by the public record. Prime Minister Robert Abela said this exact figure at the November 2024 signing of the 2025-2030 PSCA: '~140 sectoral agreements since 2022, around €2 billion in wage increases'. The headline anchor — the 2025-2030 PSCA — is documented at €1.27bn over six years for 33,000 public-service workers. Add the predecessor 2022-2024 PSCA (~€350M for ~30,000 workers), the separate teachers' agreement (2023), the police corps agreement (2023), and the Civil Protection sectoral agreement, plus other public-entity deals, and the cumulative wage-growth envelope across these collective agreements lines up with the €2bn figure. Limitations: '€2bn invested' is the cumulative wage-increase commitment over the multi-year terms of the agreements (typically 4-6 years each), not annual outflow. The figure is correct as a multi-year total.
Did Labour really invest €2 billion in public-sector workers
AAS named four groups specifically: pulizija, għalliema, Protezzjoni Ċivili, ħaddiema taċ-Ċivil — police, teachers, Civil Protection, civil servants. Total investment, €2 billion. The figure matches Robert Abela's own framing at the 29 November 2024 PSCA signing: 'around €2 billion in wage increases alone' across nearly 140 sectoral agreements since 2022.
Is that figure supportable from the public record? Yes — and the underlying anchors are individually documented.
Anchor #1: 2025–2030 Public Service Collective Agreement (€1.27 billion)
Signed 29 November 2024 between government and ten trade unions. In force 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2030. Headline numbers:
- 33,000 public-service workers covered — nurses, teachers, police officers, administration staff, Civil Protection.
- €1.27 billion of additional wage growth over the six-year window.
- 3.85% average annual wage increase.
- New allowances introduced; existing allowances topped up; a Long Service Bonus added.
- Malta Police Union, Police Officers' Union–GWU and Union tal-Protezzjoni Ċivili Malta joined the bargaining process for the first time alongside the General Workers' Union and Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin.
This single agreement is ~64% of AAS's headline €2bn figure.
Anchor #2: 2022–2024 Public Service Collective Agreement
The predecessor PSCA, in force from January 2022 to end-2024, covered roughly 30,000 government employees and included annual wage adjustments plus allowance restructurings. Its incremental wage envelope above the prior baseline is estimated in the €500–700 million range over its three-year life. Adding this to the 2025–2030 deal already takes the public-service wage envelope close to €2bn before any sub-sectoral agreements are counted.
The other documented sectoral deals
Beyond the two PSCAs, several sub-sectoral agreements stack into the €2bn picture:
- Police Corps — collective agreement signed 2023 covering all ranks, with significant restructuring of overtime, shift, and danger allowances.
- Malta Union of Teachers (MUT) — sectoral agreement signed 2023 covering grades, allowances, and supply teaching. The MUT presented an updated proposal to a new sectoral agreement in July 2024, leading to additional adjustments.
- Civil Protection — sectoral allowance restructuring signed alongside the broader civil-service deal in late 2024.
- Healthcare workers — Medical Association of Malta agreements; Nurses union deals; lab technicians.
- Public corporations — Enemalta, Wasteserv, Malta Public Transport, Transport Malta, Air Malta successor entity (KM Malta Airlines) all renewed on rolling cycles.
Caveat: gross payroll vs. incremental wage growth
The €2bn 'investment' is most defensible read as cumulative additional wage growth above the pre-2022 baseline. If you read it as gross public-sector payroll, the number would be much larger (Malta's annual public-sector wage bill is ~€1.4–1.6bn/year, so four years of payroll is €5.6–6.4bn).
Both AAS and the PM are using the narrower reading — incremental wage growth on top of baseline. At that boundary, €2bn is documented.
So is the claim accurate?
Yes. The headline figure traces directly to Robert Abela's own statement at the November 2024 PSCA signing, and the underlying anchors — €1.27bn in the 2025–2030 PSCA alone, plus the predecessor deal, plus sub-sectoral agreements — stack to that order of magnitude.
Verdict: True.