Delimara senior officials accuse Enemalta subsidiary of ‘apartheid’

Seven senior officials at Delimara power station have filed a judicial protest, accusing the chairperson of an Enemalta subsidiary of discriminatory behaviour towards them, which they described as “apartheid”.

The officials, Ludric Vella, Joseph Cassar, Sinclair Tabone, Edmund Vella, Justin Abela, Ivan Scicluna and Reno Tonna, who are all Principal Control and Instrumentation Officers (PCIOs), accused Ing. Johann Zammit, the executive chairperson of International Energy Services Centre Limited, an Enemalta subsidiary, of adopting a hostile and discriminatory attitude towards them.

They explained that they had first been transferred to Engineering Resources Ltd and then “loaned” to International Energy Services Centre Limited, before being assigned to the Delimara power station, as part of Enemalta’s restructuring following the shutdown of the Marsa power station in 2014.

The judicial protest states that since 2015, Zammit had adopted an “openly hostile” attitude towards them, acting in a “manifestly discriminatory” manner.

The plaintiffs claim that they had been prohibited from driving their vehicles into the work premises, had been issued uniforms and safety helmets that were different in colour to those of fellow officers and were forced to use their personal mobile phones for work purposes.

When they had complained about these and other acts in a similar vein to Zammit, he had told them that although they were legally right, he was in charge and they were to do as he said.

Zammit’s orders to the group included instructions to report to Plant Maintenance Officers (PMOs) Electrical rather than to engineers. However, when a new group of PCIOs were engaged in May 2016, their job description stated that they were to report to engineers.

In January 2017, the chairperson had approved a €1,000 “major slinging allowance” in favour of three PMOs whose duties were unrelated to “slinging”, following an unusually brief course on “slinging” that was only a few hours long, the protest alleges. The men claim that this was intended to strengthen the three PMO’s loyalty towards him.

Moreover, the plaintiffs had been excluded from an allowance agreed to in 2019, following talks with the General Workers' Union, they said. The allowance, which was equivalent to a one-scale rise added to all workers’ basic pay, did not apply to them.

The seven officials said they had been marginalised and felt themselves victims of “a disgusting apartheid”, calling upon Engineering Resources Ltd, International Energy Service Centre Ltd and Johann Zammit as executive chairperson to take the necessary steps to remedy the situation within 15 days, while reserving the right to further legal action to safeguard their interests. Lawyer Michael TantiDougall signed the judicial protest.