The first 18 workers out of the 46, who took the early retirement schemes offered under the agreement signed between the GWU and the government on 24 April, worked for the last time on 31 May.

Although a specific agreement between the government, the PBS management and the union about these 18 workers was signed on 27 May, the workers were only officially informed by the management a few hours before they were due to leave.

Sources said the reason given by PBS management for this delay was due to problems with the bank transfers of the payments given to these workers under the retirement schemes.

This short notice caused a lot of resentment among the workers involved, sources added.

A second group of workers taking early retirement is expected in the second week of June.

Meanwhile, interest as to whom will be filling the four managerial posts at PBS is rising after a second external application was issued last Sunday for the posts of Manager Operations and Manager Operations.

Moreover, the two managers currently employed at PBS who applied for the two posts were told prior to their interview that they would have to wait till this second external call for applications was issued.

Sources who spoke to The Malta Independent on Sunday queried whether this implied that the PBS management was not considering these two employees as fit for the job in spite of their long service with the company.

On the other hand, no second external call was issued for the other two managerial posts – Manager News and Registered Editor and Manager Programming.

The sole external call for applications for these two posts was issued on 15 and 16 May.

Interviews for the Manager News post have started. A prominent NET TV journalist was seen entering PBS for an interview, sources said.

Other journalists from radio, television and the print media have also been mentioned as having applied for this post, they said.

The top two people at the PBS newsroom have not applied for this post and have decided to quit the company altogether and re-deployed with the government, sources said.

Indeed, the newsroom is the department where most of the current staff have chosen not to apply to stay on. Sources said the PBS management might actually find it difficult to have enough employees to fill up all the posts inthe newsroom.

Moreover, there are at least 12 applications for the post of Manager Programming, The Malta Independent on Sunday has learnt.

According to our sources, there is a general atmosphere of mistrust among PBS workers because of the way the selection process is being carried out. Which is why the majority are just waiting to be re-deployed with the government.

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