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Karl Schembri
Army officers are teaming up in a bid to resist upcoming regulations that would force them out of service at 55 years of age.
Soldiers in all AFM units were informed by the Office of the Prime Minister early last month about the new rules that would become effective from January 2008, fuelling a series of unofficial meetings among officers as they plan their resistance to the move decided 10 years ago.
The decision goes back to the 1996 Labour government when Prime Minister Alfred Sant, on military expert Martin Scicluna’s advice, had decided to keep a younger army by lowering the effective retirement age to 55 and stopping the extension of service, although this was postponed by a decade with the change in government in 1998.
According to 1970 army regulations, officers and soldiers are bound to retire at the age of 55, with the option to retire after 25 years of service with full pension, but most are allowed to remain active beyond 55 through yearly extension of service.
“All members of the AFM have since 23 December 1998 been informed (as per AFM General Order No 149) that they will no longer be able to obtain an extension of service beyond their fifty-fifth birthday,” a spokesman for the prime minister said. “The order specified that this measure was to take effect in 2008. On 5 June 2006, all members of the AFM were informed that the effective date of the directive issued on 23 December 1998 is 1 January 2008. This means that all personnel who on 1 January 2008 are aged 55 years and over will have their service terminated from that date.”
High-level army sources say several officers are leading private meetings as they plan to step up pressure to get the regulations revoked.
They say the situation is identical to that on the eve of the 1998 election when around 100 officers had petitioned both party leaders to scrap the regulations.
Although they are banned from joining unions and from giving industrial orders, officers speak of unofficial go slow measures in their day to day work, while overall morale in the army remains at an all-time low.
“There is no handing over from those about to retire, everything is at a standstill,” one officer told MaltaToday.
The prime minister’s spokesman said the authorities were unaware of the growing resistance.
“Neither OPM nor AFM Headquarters are aware of any unofficial teaming up of officers and soldiers to exert pressure with a view to having the mandatory retirement directive revoked,” the spokesman said, remarking that the directive has been in place since December 1998.
A spokesperson for the association of soldiers’ relatives, which represents soldiers’ interests and is supported by the General Workers’ Union, said they were awaiting further information from the government and seeking more feedback from the soldiers before taking a public stand.
Last March, the association slammed the government for denying 250 soldiers and officers their much awaited Freedom Day medal for the second consecutive year.
The prime minister’s spokesman had cited “certain pending issues from the Depasquale inquiry” as the reason behind the suspension of the conferment of medals.
Another source of soldiers’ demoralisation is the bureaucratic process that has impeded new promotions from being given for five years.
The way bulk promotions are given is prompting “disgruntlement and loss of morale among AFM personnel,” the Ombudsman said in a special report on promotions in the army in 2003, describing the AFM as being “in a hell of a mess”.
kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt |
