Former Air Malta employee took up Mcast job despite claiming early retirement money

A former Air Malta employee who claimed early retirement money from the airline was illicitly employed by Mcast, education minister Evarist Bartolo said.

In May 2013, MaltaToday had reported that a number of former Air Malta employees who claimed their early and voluntary retirement schemes raised a red flag over the employment of co-workers inside government ministries.

Under the national career's redundancy scheme, launched in 2011 in the wake of a massive downscaling of workforce prompted by Air Malta's restructuring, employees claimed as much as €60,000 on condition that they are not recruited in a public administration over the next three years.

In reply to a parliamentary question by opposition MP Charlo Bonnici, the minister explained that three former Air Malta employees were currently employed by entities falling under the responsibility of his ministry.

He said that while two of the three persons, who are employed at the Foundation for Educational Services and Malta Libraries, had opted for government jobs, the third person joined Mcast despite benefiting from the early retirement payment.

Bartolo noted that Mcast was in the process of recovering the funds owed to government.

MaltaToday is informed that a number of former Air Malta workers who claimed the redundancy scheme are today employed as consultants with several ministries, with the ministries for social policy, and transport have employed former Air Malta workers on a self-employed basis with a contract for services.

The arrangement has allowed these workers to bypass the conditions of the Air Malta redundancy scheme dated January 2012, which would have required them to refund their redundancy money back to the government's consolidated fund had they taken up employment in public administration or the civil service.