Fuvahmulah council raises concern over WAMCO, Fenaka job cuts

Fuvahmulah City Council on Saturday raised concerns over reported dismissals of employees from Waste Management Corporation (WAMCO) and Fenaka Corporation in the city, calling for affected workers to be reinstated.

In a statement, the council said employees were being dismissed with little notice as part of efforts to reduce staffing levels at state-owned enterprises (SOEs), affecting the income of workers and their families.

The council said its representatives had met senior officials of WAMCO and Fenaka during a visit to Malé earlier this month and received assurances that projects being carried out in Fuvahmulah would not be stopped.

It said the subsequent suspension of projects and reports of employee dismissals contradicted those assurances.

The council also alleged that some employees were being dismissed without consideration of their performance or service and claimed political affiliation was being taken into account when deciding which employees to remove.

“This directly contradicts promises made to guarantee job security and violates the government's stated principles of providing fair employment opportunities,” the council said.

The council also questioned the government's approach of reducing operational staff at state-owned companies while, according to the council, increasing executive and political appointments.

It said the loss of employment was affecting households at a time when families were already facing financial pressures.

Fuvahmulah City Council called on the government and the companies concerned to review the dismissals and reinstate employees who had lost their jobs.

The concerns follow reports of job cuts at Fenaka in other parts of the country. Addu City Mayor Ali Nizar has said more than 100 Fenaka employees working in Addu have recently been dismissed.

The workforce reductions come as the government moves to restructure state-owned companies.

In July, Parliament instructed Fenaka to determine staffing requirements across its island branches and restructure its workforce accordingly.

The Privatisation and Corporatisation Board (PCB) has also instructed SOEs to reduce their overall workforce by 33 per cent.

The opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has alleged that around 90 per cent of employees dismissed so far are members of the party. Some affected employees have filed cases with the Employment Tribunal challenging their dismissals.