Employees from the Fenaka branch in HA. Dhidhdhoo organized a protest on Tuesday in response to the state utility company’s decision to dismiss 53 contractual workers.
These employees were contracted to work at Fenaka’s powerhouse in Dhidhdhoo. They claim that they only learned of their termination upon arriving for work on Tuesday morning, protesting the lack of advance notice regarding their dismissal.
Abdulla Rasheed, the president of Dhidhdhoo Council, explained to Sun that the workers’ contracts had simply reached their expiration. “Their termination was due to the expiry of their contracts. A one-year contract, for instance, means their employment ends after that period,” he stated.
Muaz Mohamed Rasheed, Fenaka Corporation’s managing director, had previously mentioned in an interview with Sun that around 900 workers across more than 40 islands were released in December following the expiration of their contracts. He suggested that these contract workers were initially hired by the previous administration before the presidential elections to garner support, with many of their contracts concluding on November 30.
According to data from the Privatization and Corporatization Board (PCB), at the end of the previous administration, Fenaka was the largest employer among state-owned enterprises, with a workforce exceeding 7,000.