Enemalta is estimated to be ‘saving’ about €17 million a year after 700-odd workers were shifted to different public entities, Times of Malta has learnt.
This newspaper is informed that officially there are no employees on the books of the ‘new’ Enemalta Plc, which took over from Enemalta Corporation in July 2014 when Shanghai Electric bought a third of the State energy provider.
Industry sources said the energy provider hires its human resources from Engineering Resources Ltd (ERL), the new government entity where all of Enemalta’s 1,500 former employees were transferred.
According to executive chairman Frederick Azzopardi, Enemalta Plc is hiring about 800 employees from ERL. The rest are deployed with various government departments or entities fully owned by the State.
Mr Azzopardi would not give details on how much Enemalta was paying ERL every month for hiring the human resources.
Most of the employees have been assigned maintenance jobs in hospitals and schools
Before the government of Malta sold 33 per cent of the shareholding to the Chinese, Enemalta Corporation had about 1,600 employees on its books and an annual wage bill of almost €40 million.
The sources noted that, through the new recruitment arrangement, about €17 million of Enemalta’s former wage bill was now being paid through the public coffers.
This newspaper reported a few days ago that more than 40 former Enemalta employees were working for the Office of the President, tending gardens and rebuilding rubble walls at the San Anton and Verdala palaces, among other tasks.
A spokesman for ERL would not give details on where the employees on its books were engaged. “It is not Engineering Resources Ltd’s policy to divulge specific details about its employees or the entities it provides services to,” he said.
The Times of Malta is informed that most of the employees have been assigned maintenance jobs at Mater Dei Hospital and other hospitals, as well as in government schools through the Education Department.
Others were transferred to Enemed Ltd, the former petroleum division of Enemalta which was hived off prior to the partial privatisation. Enemed is fully owned bythe government.
According to Mr Azzopardi, the transfer of all former Enemalta employees to the new government entity followed talks with the General Workers’ Union.
“The transfer of the workers was done so that the employees would have their employment and existing salaries and conditions guaranteed,” he said.
ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com