Enemalta employees whose jobs were no longer required were being given the opportunity to move to government departments, Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi explained in Parliament yesterday.

Answering a number of supplementary questions by shadow energy minister Marthese Portelli, who was complaining that the General Workers’ Union had been given a list of available opportunities long before the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin, Dr Mizzi said the list had initially been available all along from the corporation’s human resources section.

However, the GWU had been given the list as party to the collective agreement.

The UĦM, which represented a large number of Enemalta workers but did not have majority recognition, had been given a copy of the list as soon as it had asked for it.

Dr Mizzi recalled the time under the previous administration when redundant skilled dockyard workers had been made to cut grass. This waste of skills was exactly what the present government wanted to avoid.

The truth was that more skilled Enemalta employees were ready to take the opportunity to move than Enemalta could afford to let go, and even more than the number of jobs available.