The Shift wins landmark ruling against Wasteserv as CEO slammed

The Shift won a three-year legal battle against Wasteserv – the government’s waste agency – through a landmark ruling which will have an impact on all future government agencies using private recruitment agencies to bypass established rules.

The Information and Data Protection Tribunal Chair Anna Mallia backed the Information Commissioner’s decision on a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by The Shift and ordered Wasteserv to produce the engagement contract of a young lawyer, even though her recruitment was made through a third-party private agency.

The Tribunal slammed Wasteserv CEO Richard Bilocca for spending years trying to bypass rules to hide a job which was fully financed through state coffers.

“Wasteserv should understand that since taxpayers finance it, it cannot hide behind a private recruitment agency to bypass transparency and GDPR rules,” the Tribunal declared in a damning ruling.

The issue concerns the recruitment of Pearl Agius, a reporter from Labour’s ONE TV, who was placed on Wasteserv’s payroll as a lawyer before she had obtained a warrant to practice law.

Through Bilocca’s, a human resources company contracted by the agency, was instructed to add Agius to its payroll as a ‘lawyer at the CEO’s Officee’.

The 24-year-old reporter was previously a canvasser for Minister Miriam Dalli, who is responsible for Wasteserv and is also a former reporter at ONE TV.

When asked by The Shift to provide her contract and clarify whether Pearl Agius was recruited following a public vacancy, Bilocca initially denied her engagement. However, he quickly altered his statement when confronted with an internal Wasteserv document that confirmed Agius’s position within his office.

To justify his earlier embarrassment, Bilocca argued that Agius was not recruited by Wasteserv, but rather through a private recruitment agency, the OZO Group, which supplies the agency’s human resources. He insisted that he could not produce the contract because it was signed between Agius and OZO.

Bilocca maintained his stance even after The Shift pointed out that Agius’s recruitment was irregular and that, as a public agency, Wasteserv was obliged to be transparent and accountable.

The Information Commissioner ruled on an FOI request, ordering Bilocca to produce the contract and criticising his position. Yet the CEO refused to comply and appealed the decision.

The Tribunal, upon reviewing the appeal, again ruled against Wasteserv and condemned the CEO for his refusal to be accountable.

Currently, Wasteserv is the only government agency fully outsourcing its recruitment process. Nonetheless, other government agencies and departments are exploring similar systems, which raises significant concerns about potential abuses in candidate selection and recruitment within public agencies.

Recently, Water Services Corporation issued a tender for a human resources agency to manage its recruitment.

Despite these developments, the usually vocal trade unions have remained silent on this issue.

Lawyers Matthew Cutajar, Eve Borg Costanzi, and Andrew Borg Cardona from BCGL Advocates represented The Shift.