Three workers assigned to the Safi local council admitted they worked just four hours a day and have now been redeployed elsewhere.
The mayor is linking it to politics because he cannot find another way to defend himself
But Safi mayor Francis Callus is insisting the council and the locality were stripped of the workers in an “abusive and illegal” manner by Industrial Projects and Services Limited, which employs workers assigned to different councils.
IPSL chief executive Joe Grillo defended his decision to remove the workers after they admitted, separately, to regularly working from 7am to 11am when they were being paid for an eight-hour day.
When contacted, Mr Grillo said one of them admitted to also having a part-time job.
He said the investigation started when the workers were not seen during a number of random inspections.
“The council did not collaborate with our inspectors so we summoned the workers and, individually, they admitted to working from 7am to 11am.
“One of them even said he had a part-time job,” Mr Grillo said, specifying that the workers told him it was Mr Callus who used to release them at that time.
IPSL was set up in 2003 to absorb employees from different institutions, such as Malta Drydocks Corporation, Malta Shipbuilding, the Malta Development Corporation, Sea Malta and the Institute for the Promotion of Small Enterprise (IPSE).
It recently engaged the remaining Malta Shipyards employees.
The three men have been working for the council for some eight years and were engaged to do routine maintenance jobs, such as road painting, tree pruning, affixing road signs and other odd jobs.
Mr Callus insisted there were “no inspections” by IPSL and claimed that one of them was told his job would be terminated.
He said the reason given to the council by the company was that the workers were assigned duties such as the distribution of flyers, apart from leaving early.
Mr Callus maintained he had increased the work for them since he took over the council, so he could not understand how the company was claiming he used to release them at 11am.
Mr Callus took over following the March council election when the Labour Party won a majority in the area. He claimed IPSL’s decision was “politically motivated” but Mr Grillo vehemently refuted this.
“The mayor is linking it to politics because he cannot find another way to defend himself. The council asked whether they could appeal the decision and I invite it to take the matter to court so that we can hear the evidence of the three workers, under oath,” he said.
Mr Callus appealed for Safi residents to volunteer to fill in for the workers. He said he will be one of those who will be carrying out the work with the volunteers.
He said he had written to the Prime Minister, the Department of Local Government, the Local Councils’ Association and Labour local council spokesman Stefan Buontempo, about the matter.