Senior management at the Foundation for Social Welfare Services has distanced itself from a debacle that left hundreds of workers with unpaid pension contributions for years. 

The FSWS management team, which is led by CEO Alfred Grixti, said in a statement on Saturday that an investigation into the issue is currently underway.

Hundreds of FSWS workers are missing years of social security contributions, the UĦM – Voice of the Workers revealed on Friday, with their employer having failed to make the contributions on their behalf between 2000 and 2007. 

Issues came to light when FSWS employees nearing retirement started making inquiries into their pensions, only to discover that they did not qualify for the amount that they believed they were entitled to.

The union calculated that around €10 million in payments were missing. 

FSWS has acknowledged the problem and pledged to rectify it while reassuring affected workers that their pension will not be impacted by the issue. 

It said that issues have already been fixed for 191 affected workers, with 208 workers still having outstanding issues related to their contributions. 

On Saturday, the FSWS senior management team distanced itself from the problem, noting in a statement that none of them were “responsible for social security contributions” between 2000 and 2007 – the period affected.

It said that it regretted the issue and that the Foundation has invested in recent years in “mechanisms” intended to ensure good governance. 

UĦM said that its questions to Joe Gerada, who served as foundation CEO for much fo the time in question, had not been answered.