Motion submitted to parliament seeking reinstatement of Dhidhdhoo Fenaka staff

Dhidhdhoo MP Abdulla Waheed has submitted a motion to the parliament over state utility company, Fenaka Corporation’s decision to let go of 70 contract workers from HA. Dhidhdhoo without renewing their contracts.

The staff, hired on contract basis to work at the Fenaka powerhouse in Dhidhdhoo staged a protest at the island on Tuesday morning, following the decision.

MP Waheed, in a letter to Speaker Mohamed Aslam requesting to direct his motion to the relevant committee, stressed that work on the powerhouse is not complete yet. He further said the dismissal of the staff, without prior notice, will significantly impact their families.

“I believe the staff’s sudden dismissal from their posts without any prior notice will halt the work underway [at the powerhouse] and cause major losses and misfortune to the staff and their families,” the letter read.

MP Waheed, in his letter, requested to probe how the events unfolded and called for reinstatement of the staff and expediting work on the powerhouse.

Fenaka Corporation’s managing director Muaz Mohamed Rasheed in a post on X on Tuesday said the company decided against renewing the contracts of the staff as the powerhouse project remained stalled.

Muaz said only 1,477.5 square meters of work have been completed under the project while 70 employees were working on the project on contract basis.

He also highlighted that the project cost MVR 23,061,304.89 while the salaries for the project’s staff came up to MVR 23,269,119.42.

According to the staff, they were told they had been fired after they reported to work on Tuesday morning.

They protest that it is unfair for them to get fired without prior warning.

In December, Muaz told Sun that over 900 workers from over 40 islands were let go in December, after their contracts expired.

He alleges that the former administration hired hundreds of workers on contract basis ahead of the presidential elections to gain support. The contracts of many of the workers expired on November 30.

According to the information released by the Privatization and Corporatization Board (PCB), Fenaka had been the largest employer among state-owned enterprises at the end of the previous administration, with over 7,000 staff.