Sacked Air Malta pilots offered public sector job at same pay till 2022

The ministry for the economy will give former Air Malta pilots whose jobs were terminated by the airline, a job inside the public sector at their same take-home pay as calculated in a pilots’ collective agreement.

The pilots are those whose employment was terminated on 8 June 2020 after Air Malta initiated termination procedures when union ALPA refused a cut in take-home pay when airplanes were grounded in the COVID-19 shutdown.

The Maltese government effectively had to commit itself to a guarantee signed on 26 January 2018 by former tourism minister Konrad Mizzi, to give pilots a job at the same take-home pay they are earning now should Air Malta be downsized.

But the job will last only until 31 December 2022.

The letter was sent on 9 September, after ALPA filed a judicial protest saying that Air Malta management said the government was “only ready to reach an amicable agreement with the Association relating to the re-employment of its members if ALPA were to renounce to the rights deriving from the Agreement signed on 26th January, 2018.”

The guarantee was a side letter to the collective agreement signed by Mizzi on behalf of the government and five representatives of the Airline Pilots’ Association Malta (ALPA). There were no Air Malta signatories.

Now the economy ministry is informing pilots that they will be taking up a new job with a government entity, and is asking them to be in touch with an official of the permanent secretariat.

Previous side-letter

MaltaToday had already revealed a side letter signed by Mizzi’s predecessor, Edward Zammit Lewis, that guarantees a take-home pay for pilots in the case of Air Malta ‘rightsizing’ in conjunction with an early retirement scheme. But the Mizzi side letter gave pilots a guarantee of a job in Malta, valid until the collective agreement – signed moments earlier – expires in 2023.

The side letter, which was never made public, states: “The parties agree that through this agreement the government is giving all pilots a guarantee of a job in Malta and a take-home pay, according to the conditions of the collective agreement signed earlier today. This guarantee will continue to stand until a new collective agreement between Air Malta and ALPA is signed and which must be concluded within a reasonable time from its expiry.”

The pilots’ union is now demanding that the government respects this agreement, which was also mentioned in a judicial protest ALPA filed earlier this week against the airline and the economy minister calling for meaningful consultation.

Already in 2016, Air Malta pilots were promised a signed guarantee by the Labour government that they would be kept on the state payroll with their same take-home pay, in the absence of a voluntary retirement scheme to ‘right-size’ the airline. 

The side-letter of 18 August 2016 was an agreement forced by the threat of a strike by Malta’s pilots, in which then tourism minister Edward Zammit Lewis had to placate pilots in a bid to increase their flying hours. 

The agreement states that the government “is giving all Air Malta pilots in Malta a guarantee of work, and will actively consider a voluntary early retirement scheme to ‘right-size’ [the airline] that would be acceptable to all parties, including ALPA… the government is guaranteeing pilots that they will continue receiving a ‘take home pay’ of their choice according to either years 2014, 2015 or 2016.” 

The 2016 side-letter was then confirmed again in another side-letter, also attached to the collective agreement that followed, in which Zammit Lewis confirmed the “guarantee of work”, with ALPA finally announcing it was renouncing on its industrial dispute. 

COVID-19 sacking

Air Malta took the unprecedented step to make 108 pilots from its staff of 134 redundant, after ALPA refused to take a radical pay cut of €1,200 a month due to the coronavirus grounding all flights. 

The collective agreement states that pilots’ licences will be renewed by the company prior to termination of employment, and that “in cases of redundancies… or a change in the state of affairs of the company, discussions should be held between the company and the union to reach an agreement on the amount of compensation that the affected employees should receive. This should be additional to any other benefits the employee might be entitled to.” 

According to the collective agreement, newly appointed junior first officers are paid €24,000 while first officers start at €34,000 and captains’ take-home pay starts at €66,000 and can reach €109,000. These exclude performance-based payments for hours spent flying, layover allowances, and denied days of duty: in the latter case, at the end of each month, crew members are paid any denied days free of duty at the rate of their basic salary multiplied by 0.004: which could be as much as €200 for each day denied. 

An agreement drawn up over industrial action on the inspection of data recorders, also yielded an annual allowance for captains of €9,000, and €7,000 for first officers. 

The collective agreement also includes an early retirement scheme for pilots who have reached the age of 55 and have given 25 years’ service – two-thirds of their basic salary, plus 0.1% of basic salary per month until reaching retirement age.