An Industrial Tribunal has found Enemalta guilty of discriminating against five of its Power Generation Unit employees. It has been ordered it to pay them a total of €70,370 in salaries due to them.

The workers, Glenn Spiteri, Terry Debono, Christopher Attard, Michael Woods and Peter Paul Calleja, claimed that other employees in their section who carried out the same job as them were getting paid more.

The tribunal, presided over by chairman Leslie Cuschieri, heard how there were seven workers in the unit: the five complainants, who were plant operators and the other two who were technical officers, a grade similar to senior plant operators, although they carried out the same work and had the same responsibilities.

The power station manager, Chief Engineer Edwin Gauci, testified that the two technical officers previously worked when the energy plant was still using coal. Once there was the changeover to heavy fuel oil, these two joined the plant operators but kept their designation and salaries.

The tribunal heard that while it was hearing the case, specifically on March 4, 2013, the five workers were promoted to senior plant operators. Mr Woods alone became a store keeper in February that year for medical reasons.
They claimed that they were receiving a lower salary and also lost premium allowances between 2008 and 2013. The tribunal heard that Enemalta continued to aggravate the situation when it promoted the two workers in 2011 and increased their salaries.

The tribunal therefore ordered Enemalta to pay Mr Spiteri €14,291; Mr Debono €13,853; Mr Attard €13,854; Mr Woods €13,397 and Mr Calleja €14,975.
Lawyer Robert Abela appeared for the workers.