24 workers at the Fenaka Corporation branch in Maradhoo-Feydhoo of southernmost Addu City have been unexpectedly laid off.

RaajjeMV understands that employees that arrived for duty on Wednesday were informed from the management that they have been dismissed from service, effective Thursday.

The workers were hired during the previous administration.

It has been revealed that the employees were sacked based on emailed instructions from the Fenaka branch located in capital Malé City.

The workers are in a state of worry and unease due to the abrupt termination of their employment without prior notice.

According to the employees, since they have been hired for a particular project and the project is yet to be completed, their sudden dismissal would lead to a lot of hardships surfacing for many local families.

Terminated were temporary employees hired for the project related to the construction of Maradhoo-Feydhoo Fenaka Office Building.

However, the work on the office building has not been completed and the work has also been stalled after the incumbent administration took over.

RaajjeMV also understands that their employment was terminated without any official documents, and they were only informed in person.

The company's Managing Director Muaz Mohamed Rasheed recently announced their decision to lay off contractual employees across all islands, including 731 employees from Fenaka.

Since then, several employees are being sacked.

However, speaking to the residents of Kunahandhoo island of Laamu atoll during the presidential election, Muizzu assured them that members of the public would not be dismissed from the jobs provided to them by companies and other means.

Similarly, the president assured that he would not terminate employees hired for projects.

Back then, Muizzu said that the people would be able to stay in jobs other than political positions, in their respective islands.

This comes at a time several workers at the Road Development Corporation (RDC) sites in islands have also recently been laid off.

Muizzu repeatedly pledged that no employee of state-owned companies would be let go, as part of his presidential election campaign.

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) earlier strongly condemned the ongoing mass layoffs of employees. In response to the sudden termination of several employees, MDP’s Chairperson Fayyaz Ismail has also expressed concern. Fayyaz said that this would cut off the income of many families in the islands after the government repeatedly assured job security to those employees.

Fayyaz said that after laying off people in the name of cost-cutting, the unlimited hiring of political employees shows the government's lack of sincerity.

The main-opposition party’s chairperson went on to stress that political power should not be increased by threatening jobs and that it is the minimum responsibility of the government to work on finding alternatives and inform the public about such efforts, before terminating employment.

In a statement issued earlier, MDP highlighted that it is unacceptable to cut off the income of so many families and put them through hardship during such an economic crisis.

The opposition party stressed that while regular employees have been facing “oppression”, the Alifushi RDC site has observed an unprecedented surge in new senior positions.

With this, MDP has urged the government to immediately halt the terminations of employees.