There are fears that the downsizing currently being discussed at Air Malta will also happen at Enemalta as reports are being drawn up to see how many workers are required at the electricity company in the coming years.
General Workers’ Union section secretary Jason Deguara said the company was currently evaluating its staff requirements once the new extension to the Delimara Power Station and the interconnector to Sicily would have been concluded.
“I fear that what is happening at Air Malta will also happen at Enemalta in the near future. We already have problems with the transfer of certain employees from one department to another,” he said, referring to directives issued earlier this week.
The union ordered all Enemalta employees to refrain from using the company’s management information system which forms the basis of its operations ranging from financial administration to stores and street lighting repairs.
This prompted the corporation to file a judicial protest complaining that the directives were causing “great damage” to the company and called on the union to withdraw the directives, while saying it would hold the GWU responsible for any financial loss.
Mr Deguara said the issue revolved around the reorganisation of the corporation’s customer care and compliance office.
Last year, when the corporation was reorganising its office space, around 12 employees from this department were transferred to the same section at the Water Services Corporation pending the amalgamation of these two departments with ARMS Ltd, the new revenue collector for the two corporations.
When the office project was concluded and the workers were being transferred back, the company’s chief executive wrote to the employees in question on March 15 last year, saying: “I would like to assure you that this move in no way affects your position within the corporation and your option to join ARMS as your roles will remain the same.”
However, Mr Deguara said, although ARMS Ltd was recruiting personnel, employees within Enemalta’s finance department were told they could not join the new revenue-collection company. Instead they were offered alternative employment within the corporation.
Among the positions being offered, he said, was head of Enemalta’s fire section.
“It is inconceivable how a person who spent years collecting money and chasing people to pay their bills is now told to head the fire section, with all the risks this entrails. We do not agree with this redeployment,” he said.
The matter was discussed before Noel Vella, the director of Employment and Industrial Relations, but no solution was found.
The company said the directives were negatively affecting the company and “could leave the country without electricity”.
In a statement yesterday, Enemalta said that the credit control functions had become redundant and the management redeployed the workers in other sections, on the same salary scale.
The corporation said the union’s actions also affected the workers responsible for maintenance, adding that if there were technical faults as a result of cuts, there could be irreparable damage to the power station machines, putting the power station capabilities at substantial risk.
GWU general secretary Tony Zarb and Mr Deguara are expected to address Enemalta employees outside the corporation’s head office on Wednesday morning to inform them of the latest developments.