Air Malta pilots are on a collision course with the government over the airline's restructuring plans, an exercise they claim is being imposed without any "genuine" consultation.

Pilots said they stand to lose more than Lm500,000 a year as a result of the hefty pay cuts being proposed by the government and management in a concerted drive to pull the ailing airline out of the red.

"The writing's been on the wall for eight years but the authorities have failed to react. Why should we pay for it?"

Capt. Anton Galea, president of the Airline Pilots Association told The Times in an interview.

"We are not immune to the problem. We are willing to help the company all the way but the method of implementation is wrong," he protested.

The four unions representing workers at Air Malta were last Wednesday served with a "draft agreement" based on negotiations they have been involved in separately over the past few weeks.

Unpublished accounts seen by The Times show operating losses on airline activities up to a staggering Lm8.86 million for the year ended July 2003.

The government and management were proposing hefty pay cuts and the elimination of certain allowances.

At the same time it has vowed not to shed any workers and inject Lm30 million into the airline. Capt. Galea said that pilots were bearing the brunt of the proposals and stood to lose over 20 per cent, with take-home pay cuts spiralling to Lm500,000 a year.

"We are prepared to accept a wage freeze for a particular period. We even made it clear we were prepared to negotiate a cut subject to approval by members."

He said that among the proposals was the elimination of daytime transport for pilots, an "unacceptable" suggestion, since the authorities were not aware of the implications and the risks associated with such a decision.

Air Malta operates a transport service for pilots to ensure they are in time for their flight and avoid any risk of being directly involved in traffic accidents.

Capt. Galea insisted that the management had hardly budged from its initial proposal, despite the counter-proposals. "Irrespective of what the government is implying, the negotiations are not over."

The management was right in saying there were a lot of ingrained bad practices at Air Malta but this was not applicable to the pilots, Capt. Galea argued.

In the 1996 collective agreement negotiations between ALPA and Air Malta, the pilots agreed to a complete overhaul of their work practices. There are about 150 captains and first officers at Air Malta.

The new arrangements resulted in the introduction of the points system, the removal of restrictive practices and the introduction of new measures to make pilots' performance as efficient and flexible as possible.

Various fixed allowances, such as flying and flight certification, were eliminated. There was also a major revision of practices, which could have led to abuse, such as the proportional system for leave and office duties.

Capt. Galea explained that the scope of the agreement was to contain and reward productivity.

Another important aspect of the agreement, renewed in 1999, was to ensure industrial peace. "We were the first union to accept a clause to ensure that any disagreements are scanned through private conciliation and then arbitration," he said.

The 1999 agreement provided for the streamlining of Sundays and public holiday premiums and the introduction of a higher threshold, which prompted a cut in earnings by pilots.

After the New York attacks of September 11, 2001, the Maltese pilots decided to give a day's work gratis for three months to the company to cope with the sudden downturn in air travel.

"All the changes in working practices we have done were always in favour of the company," he said.

It was worth noting that Maltese pilots fly within the legal limit of 900 hours a year when most foreign pilots operate between 500 and 700 hours, Capt. Galea pointed out.

He claimed that Maltese pilots were still among the lowest paid in comparison to the EU average, with their take-home pay amounting to less than 50 per cent of that earned by their British Airways counterparts and even lower than the low cost airlines.

Some of the pilots are considered to be among the best in the field. Capt. Galea himself has been flying for 25 years and is considered among the most experienced on Airbus A320 aircraft.

"So I feel very offended that we are being put in the same basket as others. Is it the employees' problem that Air Malta acted as an employment agency in the past and is now overstaffed? Why should the employees be forced to pay for all the discounted fares during the elections?"

Irrespective of this, Capt. Galea said it was still ALPA's hope to reach an agreement.

ALPA is to convene a meeting of its members next week to discuss the details of the memorandum of understanding and map out the next step but Capt. Galea would not be drawn into saying whether the pilots could take some form of action.

"The last thing we want to do is hurt the company or tourism."