Malta’s Airline Pilots Association accuses Air Malta of using CoVid-19 as a pretext to change pilots’ conditions – UPDATED
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The Airline Pilot Association (ALPA) on Saturday expressed surprise at the decision taken by Air Malta to make 69 pilots redundant, saying the Covid-19 pandemic was used as a pretext for an attempt by the airline to change the pilots’ working conditions.
In a statement, ALPA referred to Air Malta’s press release stating that talks with the association have failed due to the association’s failure to cooperate, as a result of which Air Malta was left with no choice but to proceed with the redundancies of 69 of its pilots, The Malta Independent reports.
On Friday night, the company said that talks with ALPA, the airline’s pilot union, on measures to avoid redundancies in order to safeguard its ongoing sustainability and viability, failed, MaltaToday reports.
“After numerous lengthy meetings, Air Malta and the union did not reach an agreement and consequently the airline was left with no other choice but to proceed with the redundancies of 69 of its pilots,” the company said.
The Times reports “It is the Association’s view that the laying off of a significant portion of Air Malta’s pilot fleet will be detrimental to the airline’s future. The company’s decision to proceed with the contemplated redundancies underlines the use of the Covid-19 pandemic as a pretext to do away with the current conditions of employment for its workers, whilst, on the other hand, ensuring that excessively generous packages for those in the higher tiers of the company’s management are retained,” ALPA said.
UPDATE – PM Robert Abela said that the decision taken by the airline would have to be seen in the context of the way pilots had behaved during the negotiations, describing them as uncooperative.
Describing an “industrial pique” between the government and the pilots’ union, Abela said that the ball was now in their court. “We won’t backtrack on the announced redundancies, but the ball is now in the union’s court, if they want to sit down around a table again, then they will have to draft proposals that make sense,” he said according to Times of Malta.
Abela said the airline had faced a situation of close to zero revenue during the outbreak, with a closed airport, yet pilots still expected to have working conditions that were among the best in the world.
