NetEnt has been issued with an injunction following a request by the General Workers’ Union Malta, preventing the company from implementing mass redundancies.
Representing the majority of NetEnt employees in Malta, the GWU filed an application before Malta’s Superior Courts where it requested an injunction to prevent the €2bn company from implementing any form of redundancy or from terminating any employment.
A GWU representative stated: “Thanks to the court’s intervention following our urgent request, 324 illegal dismissals have now been put on hold.
“We will continue to insist that NetEnt and Evolution Gaming honour their consultation obligations in full, and we will do our utmost to ensure that jobs are saved, and, where that is not possible, that appropriate compensation is paid.”
The GWU argued that NetEnt had ‘failed to notify and consult’ in terms of European and local law protecting employment in a collective redundancy scenario.
Furthermore, the court also charged NetEnt and its new owner Evolution with, what the statement claims to be, a ‘wholesale break of EU transfer of undertakings rules’.
The GWU condemned NetEnt and Evolution’s ‘anti-union tactics’, which it contends are intended to ‘prevent an effective consultation of employees at a critical moment when they are facing potential redundancy days before Christmas’.
In its application to the court, the union argued that the company had negotiated a termination package with an ‘employee representative’ who was dismissive of the employees’ pleas, and who was appointed by the company itself in breach of regulations governing information and consultation obligations.
On the other hand, the company refused to consult with the GWU, which now represents the majority of local NetEnt employees.
The court will hear the parties’ arguments at a specially appointed sitting to be held on December 17.
