Go workers warned of possible redundancies after May

Employees with telecoms company Go are being urged to take the last voluntary retirement scheme on offer or face possible redundancy after the May deadline.

The former state-owned company, which was privatised after Dubai-based firm Tecom Investments bought the government's 60 per cent stake in 2006, was precluded from shedding any jobs for three years as part of the sale agreement.

But that condition comes to an end this year, together with the last voluntary redundancy scheme currently on offer.

Employees who have spoken to The Sunday Times said that the management was pushing the scheme intensively, telling eligible employees that the company was likely to pursue "right-sizing" through redundancies after May.

In a letter sent to employees when the scheme was launched last July, CEO David Kay all but spelt it out. "When this scheme comes to an end, it is not the company's intention to launch any new scheme and at that stage any required right-sizing will be achieved in accordance with standard benefits stipulated by the relevant legislation," he said.

However, the company would not disclose its target workforce when asked for a figure last week. In its 2006 bid for what was then Maltacom, Tecom Investments had suggested it would need to shed as many as 750 employees through voluntary retirement schemes by 2009 in order to be competitive.

"Tecom would like to achieve a realistic target of 300 lines per employee in the medium-term, which would lead to expected voluntary retirements of between 175 and 225 employees per year in the next three years, and 75 employees in 2009," the bid document had said.

At the time, the company had around 1,500 employees on its books, which means that this year it should have halved that workforce. Yet, as of December, Go was quoting a workforce of 1,350.

The company was asked whether it was still pursuing those targets but no response was forthcoming.

A spokesman would say only that "Go is currently running the third voluntary retirement scheme in the last two and a half years. The current scheme opened in July 2008 and the company plans to terminate it in May or earlier."

The scheme, which is open to former Telemalta/Maltacom employees with a minimum of 15 years' service, was supported by the General Workers' Union and all employees had been given full details, he said.

The union's section secretary responsible for the workers, Andrew Mizzi, said there was a process of human resources stocktaking being carried out. But the GWU is not aware of Go's target number.

When asked about the management's suggestions to workers about redundancies after May, Mr Mizzi said it was not the first time the company had told workers there would be no more voluntary retirement schemes "but it has always issued new ones after saying that".

Still, he acknowledged the situation is different this time round given the tough competition in the market. Three years ago, Go had a monopoly on fixed-line telephony. That has now ended and it has to compete with five telecoms companies in different services.

Nonetheless, Mr Mizzi said he was not expecting any surprises.

His counterpart at the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin, Nicholas Baldacchino, was more uneasy about the situation.

He said that since the UĦM was the minority union at Go, it was not given much information about the situation.

However, he said that there were suggestions by the management that redundancies could be considered if the workforce was not in line with the company's targets after May.

Both unions lamented that while the retirement schemes were on, the company was still employing people, stressing that there should be redeployment and re-training before redundancies were considered.