A former employee of the Malta Tourism Authority was yesterday awarded over €98,000 in damages after a court ruled that the MTA had failed to guarantee his conditions of work when he was assigned to work with WasteServ Malta Ltd.

Carmel D’Amato was employed by the MTA as a senior manager in 1999 and promoted to finance director in 2001. After being restructured, the MTA declared Mr D’Amato redundant. He was transferred to Industrial Projects Services Ltd, which found a job for him with WasteServ.

But the court ruled that Mr D’Amato’s conditions of work at WasteServ were inferior to those he had enjoyed at the MTA. When referring to his contract of employment with the MTA, the court pointed out that the MTA had reserved the right to assign other duties to Mr D’Amato within the same grade and with the same conditions.

In fact, when the restructuring exercise took place, Mr D’Amato had been told that his employment and salary would be guaranteed.

Although the MTA had claimed that it was not satisfied with his work, Mr Justice Joseph Zammit McKeon pointed out that it had not fired him. Moreover, one of Mr D’Amato’s colleagues at the MTA had testified that he was satisfied with Mr D’Amato’s performance.

In conclusion, the court found in favour of Mr D’Amato and ordered the MTA to pay him €98,920.51 in damages.