Leonid McKay is poised to take over government jobs agency JobsPlus, in the agency’s first major shake-up since it was entrusted to Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri.
McKay, who currently heads the Authority for the Responsible Use of Cannabis, will be announced as the new CEO of Jobsplus next week, government sources told Times of Malta on Saturday.
He takes on the new role after just 18 months at ARUC, where he was tasked with getting a cannabis licencing regime off the ground. The first cannabis associations began operating earlier this year, with other licences in the pipeline.
A government source described McKay as someone with “an excellent track record and a social conscience.”
He will replace Alexia Vella as Jobsplus CEO.
Jobsplus is Malta’s national employment agency. Aside from listing jobs and keeping track of jobseekers, it also maintains statistics about the labour force and plays a key role in job permitting rules for third-country nationals.
The agency came in for staunch criticism by the Sofia public inquiry, which noted, among other things, that the agency had more members on its board of directors than workplace inspectors.
That inquiry, which probed the construction site death of 20-year-old Jean Paul Sofia, also noted a significant lack of cooperation between the agency and Identitá, the government agency responsible for visas.
After the report was published, Prime Minister Robert Abela transferred the agency away from Finance Minister Clyde Caruana’s portfolio and into that of Byron Camilleri, who is also politically responsible for Identitá.
As JobsPlus CEO, McKay will be asked to improve the agency’s enforcement wing, stamp out abuse related to the permitting of third-country workers and work more closely with Identita, which is also under new leadership.
Before taking over the cannabis regulator, McKay led the Housing Authority between 2018 and 2022. Prior to that, he served as director of Caritas Malta. During that time, the organisation published studies into the minimum wage, exploitation of migrant workers and social benefits.