Labour reporter on WasteServ’s payroll complains she doesn’t have a warrant

Pearl Agius, a Labour TV reporter who months ago was recruited as a government agency lawyer, has filed a complaint in court that she has not yet been given a warrant to be able to practice her profession.

A judicial protest filed in court a few days ago by Agius and around 10 other students said that despite graduating lawyers and sitting for their warrant exams, they are still waiting for their warrants to be able to start working as lawyers.

Students who have graduated but still do not have their warrants cannot practice as lawyers but this does not seem to have been the case for the 24-year-old ONE TV reporter.

Unlike her peers who, like her, are eager to get their hands on their warrants to start earning a living, Agius has already been receiving a full salary as WasteServ’s in-house lawyer although, according to her own judicial protest, she cannot yet exercise her profession.

Sources at WasteServ told The Shift that Agius, who has been put on the agency’s payroll directly by CEO Richard Bilocca, have confirmed that her recruitment has been carried out irregularly.

“On what basis did WasteServ choose to employ an unwarranted lawyer and at the same time discriminate against her own student colleagues and any other warranted lawyers who were not given the same opportunity?” one senior WasteServ official asked.

The Shift has reported how Agius has been employed as a lawyer at the CEO’s office for months without a public call.

Asked to state how Agius was recruited by WasteServ before she even graduated, Bilocca denied the fact and said WasteServ had no contract with Agius.

He changed his tune, however, when The Shift sent him a screenshot of WasteServ’s digital directory, which lists Agius as working within his own office.

In response, Bilocca acknowledged that Agius formed part of his team but insisted that she was not recruited by the agency but, rather, by its human resources provider.

The Shift is informed that through a €10 million contract given to the OZO group, a private human resources agency run by the Zammit Tabona family, most of WasteServ’s lower-grade and manual workers are provided by the agency. In this case, OZO has also provided the services of an in-house lawyer.

It is not known how, from among the hundreds of warranted and experienced lawyers around, an unwarranted ONE TV reporter was chosen for the job.

It is, however, known that such agencies contracted by the government and its agencies are being used to bypass the regular public sector recruitment channels to place selected people on the public payroll with public calls for vacancies.

Apart from being a ONE TV reporter, Agius is also a canvasser for Environment Minister Miriam Dalli, who is politically responsible for WasteServ.

Agius was also appointed by the government last year to act as the board secretary for the Commission on Gender-Based Violence and Domestic Violence, where she earned an additional salary while studying and working as a reporter.

Sources at WasteServ told The Shift that Agius had also been “given a good push”, by her uncle, Jesmond Abela, aka Il-Hutch.

Himself a Labour stalwart, il-Hutch had been given a phantom job at government agency Projects Plus and remained on the scandal-prone agency’s payroll despite protracted absences from his place of employment.