The people involved had already been employed as part-timers in the newsroom till October last year, when the part-timers were removed from the newsroom in a bid to cut costs.

Asked whether the employment of these two part-timers was in contradiction with the restructuring exercise at PBS, which is seeing its worforce diminishing from 178 to 64, Mr Psaila replied:

“We had to employ them because currently there are less people in the newsroom than the compliment. Moreover there are people who are on leave and other who are on sick leave, and the news operations have to continue.”

As to whether they were going to keep the part-timers in the newsroom once the compliment is filled, Mr Psaila said: “We do not exclude keeping them is there is the need for them, not only in the newsroom but in other departments as well.”

Mr Psaila said that the number of applications for the post of journalist/editor were in the “double digit” area. There are currently four vacancies for journalist/editor in the newsroom, and the call for applications closes on 26 August.

Moreover, there were seven applications for the post of Manager News and Registered Editor, Mr Psaila told The Malta Independent on Sunday. The call for applications — the third one for this post — had closed last Monday (16 August).

At the same time, there are still a number of employees in the newsroom who have chosen either early retirement or re-deployment with the government who have been asked to stay on till the staff replacing them is recruited.

However, journalist Nathalie Attard was granted early retirement this week, The Malta Independent on Sunday has learnt.

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