This government has bent over backwards and even caused itself a great deal embarrassment to keep promises it must have made to certain individuals and groups before the general election last year. But then with other promises it has been a completely different matter. Those promises appear to be dispensable, because the people to whom they were made are worth less than those with whom directly conflicting deals were struck.

Joseph Muscat, then Opposition leader, was recorded at a meeting for Enemalta employees, during the election campaign, saying that Enemalta would not be privatised and the jobs of employees were safe. But then the privatisation of Enemalta was one of the first things his government got to work on, with a stake of around 33% sold to the Chinese government.

 

Now we are told that Enemalta’s 1,530 employees will be ‘transferred’ to a new company as the sale of that 33% stake proceeds along with the sale of the Delimara power station, also to the Chinese government (Shanghai Electric is a Chinese state-owned company). Energy and Health Minister Konrad Mizzi told the press that Enemalta Corporation will now become Enemalta plc, “in the next stage of its business improvement process”.  China will plough in €320 million.

But those 1,530 employees will not stay with Enemalta plc. The shift is but temporary. At least three other companies will be set up, and the employees will be moved along and distributed between them. And here’s the rub. One of those companies will handle petroleum, and it will be sold off to the private sector, employees and all. And in that situation, the buyer is not required to keep the employees on, but can shed them as necessary. The other two companies will take care of “the generation and distribution of energy, and the development of energy from new sources”.

 

And here again we are talking private not state, at least in the case of the company which will provide for the generation and distribution of energy. Though the government did not say so yesterday, this is clearly ElectroGas Malta Ltd. This company remains to be constituted pending the purchase of shares in Malta Power and Gas Ltd (an Enemalta company) by the various entities in the ElectroGas consortium. And there, too, the new company will not be required to keep on the employees if they are a liability to the bottom line, or if other employees are found to be better.

So is it all looking black for Enemalta employees? No, but it’s certainly looking that way for the public sector payroll burden. The government has said that Enemalta employees, before being transferred to one of the three companies, will be asked whether they want another job with the government instead. And it doesn’t take much to predict that this is what most of them will opt for because it means they can never be made redundant, whereas if they move on to one of the private companies, the risks are too great.

 

For those of us who have worked in the private sector all our lives, the fear of ‘going private’ is hard to understand, because it is normality to us. You lose one job, you get another. Most people in the private sector change jobs of their own volition, because they want to improve their circumstances and knowledge through change. People who work for state corporations tend not to be interested in that and are fearful of what they perceive to be great uncertainty. The benefits of working for in the private sector are far outweighed, in their view, but the knowledge that you can be made redundant at any time.

There’s more. A source told one newspaper that “the basic pay of all employees will be guaranteed, but shifts, allowances, overtime and other benefits are still up for discussion.” Well, that much should be obvious, because the private sector does not work that way. Fascinatingly, the General Workers Union has so far been silent, at least in public. Had the government not been Labour, it would have been broadcasting a call to arms and mobilising its armies for a march on Valletta. It’s done that kind of thing for much less than this.

The prime minister, however, continues to insist that this is not privatisation “strictly speaking”, because the government will retain the majority stake in Enemalta plc. I agree with him that it is not ‘privatisation’ but there isn’t a name for a company owned by two states: China and Malta. Enemalta plc will remain, if we have to be sticklers for terminology, a state-owned corporation. It’s just that instead of there being just the one state, Malta, there will now also be China. But the second stage – the setting up of three companies – is most definitely privatisation. One company will be ElectroGas Malta and the other company – the one involved in petroleum – is to be sold off.

The prime minister also said yesterday that nothing will change for Enemalta employees and that their conditions and pay will remain the same. That’s a reckless statement to make. Once you have sold a company off, employees and all, you have no control over what becomes of them. But then I suppose the prime minister’s reassurance to these employees is based on the fact that they can choose to leave Enemalta altogether for another job with the government. That will, however, put them within the public service structure in terms of pay and conditions, unless the government plans to insert them into state-owned agencies that can set their own terms for wages, salaries and conditions of work.