ALPA refuses Air Malta offer to reinstate redundant pilots on half-pay

Air Malta said the offer meant that most of the pilots would have had to accept a reduction to their remuneration while maintaining most of their favourable rostering practices

Updated with ALPA reaction to Air Malta statement

Air Malta has said the airline pilots unions ALPA had refused an offer by the airline that would have seen all the flight deck crew, including the 69 pilots previously made redundant, secure their employment and re-instated back to their flying careers.

Air Malta said the offer meant that most of the pilots would have had to accept a reduction to their remuneration while maintaining most of their favourable rostering practices at a time when the airline faces considerably decreased revenues and ongoing high costs in operations.

The offer would have seen the currently employed pilots accept a 20% reduction in their basic pay, while the 69 redundant pilots would have been re-employed at 50% of their previous basic pay.

All pilots would have seen their basic pay increase to 90% in April 2022 and revert to full basic pay in April 2023. Productivity and fixed allowances would be paid in full throughout.

The 69 returning pilots would have had to relinquish their retirement scheme which currently entitles the Air Malta crew to receive a payout of about €800,000 when attaining the age of 55.

In addition, all pilots would also have to drive themselves to work, forfeiting a legacy practice of having a chauffeur driven car to pick them up for duty.

The currently employed pilots refused the offer that would have permitted their 69 redundant colleagues to be re-employed with conditions that the company could sustain in challenging conditions as a result of the effects of the pandemic.

“The airline is disappointed with the outcome of the vote, following efforts to maintain all pilots in employment at a time when the industry has seen over 90,000 pilots world-wide made redundant. Air Malta remains committed to ensuring its ongoing sustainability to the benefit of all its staff and the whole nation.”

ALPA reaction

In reaction, ALPA said the secret ballot among the members of the association was taken after consulting those members made redundant.

“The said proposals were then rejected by 96% of the votes cast by the members who were retained in employment by the company,” it said in a statement. “Moreover, none of the said members voted in favour thereof.

ALPA said the result reflected the general and overarching sentiment among the pilot community towards Air Malta persistently negotiating in bad faith and how the airline had taken advantage of the current circumstances in an attempt to force the association to renounce core rights deriving from its members’ freedom of association.

The proposals proposed by the company were divisive in nature and discriminated between the conditions of employment offered to employees who were retained in employment and between those offered to members whose employment was unjustly terminated, the union said.

ALPA said it had, in fact, proposed a 50% pay-cut across the board, wheras the company’s proposals would have seen a good number of the pilots made redundant suffer a 70% pay cut in actual take-home pay.

As to Air Malta’s claim that its proposals would have secured the employment of its members, ALPA said the company had repeatedly stressed that the conclusion of an agreement was dependent on ALPA’s renunciation to the rights contained in the agreement entered into with the government of Malta on 26 January 2018.

“By means of such agreement, the government had provided work-related guarantees to the members of the association, as well as a guarantee that the conditions of employment contained in the collective agreement currently in force would be safeguarded until the signing of a new collective agreement," ALPA said.