Air Malta pilots will meet tomorrow to vote on a proposal to go on strike as negotiations over their new collective agreement remain deadlocked.
Sources close to the pilots told The Times that the meeting will decide whether they will resort to strike action over what they claim are low salaries and poor working conditions which are forcing pilots to look to other airlines for employment.
The sources said the airline's pilots are fed up of the situation, which is leading to a serious shortage of pilots and which is set to worsen in the near future.
In protest at the situation, the pilots had last August started to dress down on the job. Their collective agreement is three years' overdue and they are irked by the airline's reluctance to offer them what they deem to be good enough salaries and conditions that would stem the hoemorrhage of pilots.
The Airline Pilots' Association has claimed that the situation is affecting Air Malta's schedule. Last week it issued a statement saying that on December 10, a flight to Bologna had to be cancelled because one of the pilots assigned to the flight was a new recruit who did not have the required hours to operate legally into an airport affected by fog.
The sources said the situation at Air Malta was so bad that a number of pilots have not been able to take all their leave for the past two years.
Recently, the pilots turned down two pay offers which they considered to be unacceptable. According to the pilots, the airline is also proposing new working conditions that include halving their sick leave entitlement.
Sources had told The Sunday Times that the pay offers ranged between 21 and 27 per cent over the next 29 months.
Discussions on the new collective agreement began around eight months ago. At first, the pilots made a number of demands that would have cost the airline around Lm3 million a year. They later reduced their requests to Lm1.6 million a year.
The airline made an offer of Lm1 million spread over two-and-a-half years and gave the pilots two dates for conciliation meetings after declaring a deadlock in talks.
The association has however rejected compulsory conciliation, saying this is only intended to be used for the interpretation of a collective agreement that has already been signed.