[VIDEO] Air Malta employees offered voluntary retirement in August

A meeting held for Air Malta employees at the Dolmen Hotel in Qawra ended in applause for newly appointed chairman Louis Farrugia and chief executive Peter Davies, who reportedly stressed that they have a "plan" to revive the airline.

The two hour meeting, which was closed to the media informed the workers that a voluntary redundancy scheme will be issued to all workers in all sections of the airline during August.

The scheme is to target the shedding of 511 jobs according to workings conducted by consultants Ernst & Young over the past months.

MaltaToday is informed that should the scheme not attract enough workers, then the airline would be inclined to resort to a Plan B that, whereby the principle of 'last in, first out' will be adopted.

Commenting to the media at the end of the media, chairman Louis Farrugia expressed his satisfaction that the meeting was "very cordial" and proved how important communication with the workers was at this time.

"I am very satisfied that we have managed to produce a very fruitful communication excercise," Farrugia said as he left the Dolmen Hotel, while chief executive Peter Davies attempted to dodge the media by insisting on a "no comment."

Davies was reported to have promised the workers that he could turn the company around and promised to keep trade unions involved in the whole process of restructuring.

Workers were given a presentation of the state of affairs at the airline which was given a €52 million loan by government last December to keep it afloat.

The General Workers' Union threatened yesterday that industrial action would be ordered if government does not "guarantee" the absorbtion of the workers to be laid off. The Union Haddiema Maghqudin (UHM) also urged government to absorb the redundant workers.

Busloads of employees arrived in Qawra, with many of the workers expressing their anxiety over their fate with the company.

“I really want to know what is going to happen, I have been with the company for the past 33 years,” said a loader who preferred to keep anonymity before he entered the meeting.

Many others expressed concern about their mortgages, and families.

Dominic Azzopardi, president of the airline pilots association (ALPA) told MaltaToday that a meeting for his members is scheduled for July 5 to discuss the way forward.

Air Malta security personnel made sure that no media would get into the building, and ensured that all those attending produce their Air Malta identity tags to gain access to the meeting.

The management has organised a reception for the workers at the end of the meeting.