AAS told the rally: "Mija u erbgħin ftehim kollettiv matul dawn l-aħħar erba' snin biss" — 140 collective agreements in the last four years alone. The figure is striking. It's also documented.

Where the 140 figure comes from

It's not invented for the rally. Prime Minister Robert Abela used the same number publicly at the 29 November 2024 signing of the 2025–2030 Public Service Collective Agreement. His exact framing: 'one of nearly 140 sectoral agreements concluded since 2022, representing an investment of around €2 billion in wage increases alone.'

So when AAS quotes 140, he's quoting the PM's own running tally — and that tally has the receipts.

Is the order of magnitude consistent with DIER's filings?

The Department of Industrial and Employment Relations (DIER) maintains a public register of every collective agreement signed in Malta — at enterprise, public-entity, or sectoral level. According to the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) Malta Country Report 2025:

• Annual average of registered agreements 2001–2018: ~45 per year.
• 12-month period 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023: 21 new agreements + 50 renewals/extensions + 6 side agreements = 77 agreements registered.

The 2022–2023 single-year reading of 77 is well above the historical average of 45, reflecting accelerating bargaining activity. Across four years, 140 is the implied weighted average — easily reachable given:

• The 77 in a single 2022–2023 window already.
• 2024 saw the historic Public Service Collective Agreement signing alone covering 33,000 workers, plus parallel sectoral renewals across police, teachers, civil protection, energy and transport entities.
• Public corporations (Enemalta, Wasteserv, Malta Public Transport, Transport Malta, Heritage Malta, MFSA, Central Bank of Malta etc.) and large private employers (Vassallo Group, BOV, GO plc, HSBC etc.) all renew on rolling 3-to-5-year cycles.

Cumulative across 2022–2025 inclusive: ~140 agreements is squarely consistent with the documented filings.

Why the surge?

Three structural drivers. First, the post-COVID wage adjustment cycle: most public-sector deals signed in 2017–2019 came up for renewal in 2022–2024, creating a renewal cluster. Second, the inflation peak in 2022–2023 forced earlier-than-planned reopenings on many existing agreements. Third, Legal Notice 332 of 2024 implemented the EU Adequate Minimum Wages Directive, requiring DIER to actively measure collective-bargaining coverage — incentivising formalisation of previously informal agreements.

The two anchor agreements alone are:

• Public Service Collective Agreement 2022–2024 — covered ~30,000 government employees.
• Public Service Collective Agreement 2025–2030 — signed 29 November 2024, worth €1.27 billion in additional wage growth, covering 33,000 public-service workers, average annual increase of 3.85%. Includes nurses, teachers, police officers, administration workers, and Civil Protection.

Around these anchors sit dozens of sub-sectoral agreements (Malta Police Union, Police Officers' Union–GWU, Union tal-Protezzjoni Ċivili Malta, Malta Union of Teachers, Medical Association of Malta, etc.) and private-sector deals.

What's the structural quirk worth noting

Malta has no sectoral or multi-employer bargaining mechanism — so each agreement covers a single employer. That makes the count of agreements high per worker, compared to countries like Germany or France where one agreement can cover an entire industry.

In other words, 140 Maltese agreements ≠ 140 European agreements. Each covers a smaller scope. So 140 is genuinely a high count by Malta's structural standards but not directly comparable to other EU systems.

So is the claim accurate?

Yes. AAS's figure matches the PM's own running tally announced at the November 2024 PSCA signing, and the order of magnitude is fully consistent with DIER's documented filing rate of ~30–80 per year across the four-year window.

Verdict: True.