The Armed Forces of Malta will be strengthening the ranks through the recruitment of retired army officers who will be able to work on a part-time basis.
Emulating what the police have done, the AFM will give the opportunity to those who choose to retire after 25 years of service and soldiers who quit less than three years ago to rejoin on a part-time basis and perform duties for a maximum of 19 hours a week.
Officially, the AFM is stating the new scheme, dubbed the Volunteer Reserve Force, is part of the army’s long-term plans to expand its capabilities and reach full complement levels. However, army sources told the Times of Malta the exercise is primarily a response to “a looming crisis where it comes to recruitment because the army is not attracting the number of new recruits it used to and many soldiers are either leaving or not continuing after the 25-year career”.
Army officers have the privilege of receiving a full-pension after 25 years of service. Yet, they can still choose to continue with their career until reaching normal retirement age.
However, over the past years, the AFM experienced a number of resignations, with very experienced and long-serving officers leaving and recruits changing jobs not long after joining the army.
About 60 soldiers are estimated to have left last year
About 60 soldiers, almost half of them being young recruits, are estimated to have left last year.
Not many details of how the new scheme will be administered are available. According to the army, applications to work as a part-time soldier will be received from officers who left either less than three years ago or have gone on retirement after 25 years of service.
In the latter’s case, retired soldiers will still keep their full pension rights while boosting their income by spending a few hours a week at the barracks.
In every case, part-time soldiers will be assigned duties and paid in line with the last rank they were in when they resigned.
AFM sources said that although the scheme could be “a good initiative to deal with the recruitment crisis” the conditions were “too arbitrary” and could lead to abuse.
According to the conditions, it is up to the army’s top brass to decide which applications to accept and this is to be done on a strictly individual basis.
“Knowing how the army in Malta works and the way its top officers were promoted recently, it is not really healthy that recruitment is so arbitrary and subjective,” the sources said.
Also, the sources noted that the scheme was being launched at a politically-sensitive time in view of the European and local elections in May, a factor that also risked politicising the exercise.
During the last electoral campaign, a multitude of promotions were made within the army, some of those promoted being interviewed not long before polling day.
Part-time work in the security forces was introduced soon after Labour was returned to power in 2013.
At the time, a number of retired police officers, some of them in their late 60s and even over 70, rejoined the force. Most of them were engaged part-time and allocated administrative work.