Tony Zarb - 'Saving Air Malta cannot come to the detriment of airline employees'

General Workers Union secretary-general Tony Zarb said his union will not back down from safeguarding the livelihoods of Air Malta’s 1,600-strong workforce, in a meeting he held outside the airline’s office today afternoon.

“I appeal for unity… and I ask journalists to be cautious about what they report on the state of the airline,” Zarb said.

“This is not your fault,” he told Air Malta employees, referring to the “unpleasant” state of the company which is expected to register €50 million in losses this year. Zarb said summer losses amounted to €12 million.

Zarb said unions had met twice with finance minister Tonio Fenech and auditors KPMG in the steering committee set up with the Opposition and unions.

Appealing for unity amongst all Air Malta employees, Zarb referred to media reports on the GWU’s industrial actions in 1995 at Air Malta: “We took those actions because of the bad decisions being taken by Air Malta management, decisions that the company is still suffering from today.”

Zarb said the airline’s challenges had to be addressed, “but not to the detriment of the workers’ livelihoods. We’re telling you this is our position as a union. This is our position as we enter talks with the government.”

The shedding of some 1,000 workers is the price to be paid for a planned government injection of €50 million in State Aid into Air Malta, in a bid to save the airline from imminent collapse.

This injection will technically ‘cover’ the estimated and unprecedented  €50 million in losses that the national airline is expected to register for 2010.

Caught between tight EU regulations and limited cash availability, government is now left with little room for manoeuvre after years of unexplained postponement on strategic decisions originally intended to avoid such a situation.

It was only last week that government formally communicated with the European Commission its plans for a restructuring plan at Air Malta, and halved the proposed €100 million in capital injection to €50 million, that will now have to invested as state aid.

Under EU rules, government cannot grant any state aid to Air Malta without the European Commission’s consent, as EU member states are obliged forward a credible justification report to be scrutinized by EU experts.

With this emergency in hand, it comes with no surprise that President George Abela has this week stepped in to chair talks between government and opposition in a bid to find common ground on the way forward to salvage the beleaguered airline.