Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company Ltd (MIFCO), which has come under fire for the massive delay in settling fishermen’s dues, has sacked several employees in the name of “improving governance”.

In a memo addressed to all employees by CFO Ilyas Haneef, who is in charge of running MIFCO, the company announced its decision to lay off a big chunk of their regular employees.

RaajjeMV understands that MIFCO and the Ministry of Finance have decided to join hands to ensure that the company has “enough” staff and to improve its operations.

According to the memo sent to staff members, this is being done in the name of “MIFCO Efficiency Exercise”.

Further, the memo also notified employees of the decisions taken by the company’s Board of Directors on July 17.

According to the memo, the basic salaries of senior and middle-management owners will be slashed by 20 percent and as part of the changes, the salary will also be slashed for higher positions from CEO to senior manager ranks.

The memo goes on to read that the pay structure of all departments will be leveled to bridge the gap in the pay structure of the employees.

Employees who need to be laid off based on performance will be dismissed and non-essential employees will be removed among those on probation as well.

MIFCO has also decided that employees who have been contractual employees after reaching the age of 65, will be terminated after giving a three-month notice and that they would not be hiring any more contractual employees unless special circumstances call for it.

This comes at a time the company is tiptoeing on wafer-thin ice for not settling fishermen’s dues.