Enemalta slashed its wage bill significantly over the past year with almost 600 employees being moved to other entities since the Chinese bought a 33 per cent stake, the Times of Malta in informed.
A spokesman said that, since August 2014, when an agreement was signed with Shanghai Electric, there are now 593 fewer employees on Enemalta’s payroll as these were redeployed to other entities, including government departments.
The power-generation company now has 893 employees on its books in contrast to 1,486 it had prior to its partial privatisation. Conservative calculations made by this newspaper and based on the last published accounts of Enemalta, dating back to 2011, the company is saving about €10 million a year in wages.
In 2011, its wage bill amounted to €40 million. Then, the majority of employees – 1,069 – were employed directly with the electricity division and 139 were connected to the petroleum division.
Another 350 employees were involved in administration.
So far, Enemalta would not give a breakdown on where the 593 employees no longer on its books have been allocated.
However, this newspaper is informed that the majority are now being paid through public funds as they have been engaged by various government departments and other State entities. These include Enemed, a government company that took over the petroleum division.Constituted bodies are currently urging Enemalta to further lower electricity tariffs due to the free fall of the price of crude oil and the use of the interconnector with Sicily.
The energy provider must cut electricity rates by 30 per cent to pass on oil savings
According to the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises – GRTU, the energy provider must slash electricity rates by at least 30 per cent to pass on its oil savings to the consumer.Since the last revision in electricity tariffs, in March 2014, the price of crude oil on the international markets fell by a staggering 55 per cent.
The government is refuting any talk of another cut in tariffs and argues that this will be detrimental to Enemalta’s recovery.
Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi said a further reduction would derail government plans for Enemalta to break-even by 2017.
He argued that, apart from the oil factor, the price of electricity included other costs such as investments, both past and future, and repayment of loans.
According to the 2011 annual report, the price of oil represented 70 per cent of Enemalta’s operational costs. Then, the average price of oil exceeded $100 a barrel.Since 2011 many changes have been introduced in Enemalta.
The new BWSC plant allows Enemalta to generate electricity at a much lower cost because of higher efficiency and, furthermore, Malta started importing electricity through the interconnector. Dr Mizzi said that the cost of imported electricity from Sicily ranged between 4c and 18c per unit.
ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com