Court orders former British Airways to pay almost €223,000 in compensation to former sales manager

The plaintiff told the Court that when British Airways decided to terminate its operations in Malta with effect from 31 March 1989, it had entered into a collective agreement with its employees.

According to this agreement, the company was to pay its employees a redundancy payment of one-eighth of the employees’ monthly salary as at 31 March 1989 multiplied by the number of months of service with British Airways.

Despite the termination of operations, the court heard that British Airways had retained Stagno Navarra in employment as sales manager with effect from 1 April 1989.

His letter of appointment stated that in the event that the company decided to terminate his employment, he would be eligible for the same terminal benefits as were contained in the collective agreement.

The issue that the Court had to decide was, whether the reference to the 31 March 1989 in the collective agreement was a fixed reference to that date or whether it could be applied to the actual date of termination of employment which, in this case, was October 2009.

In its judgment, the court concluded that the plaintiff’s terminal benefits were to be computed on the basis of his monthly salary as at 31 October 2009.

The collective agreement had stipulated 31 March 1989 as the date the employment of the company’s other employees was terminated. However, the court ruled that the plaintiff’s employment was terminated in 2009 and not in 1989.

Hence the First Hall of the Civil Court ordered the defendants to pay the plaintiff €222,926.31 in terminal benefits.

Stagno Navarra had filed his claim for benefits after his employment was terminated on 31 October 2009.