Updated: GWU declares dispute at Air Malta

(Adds Air Malta reaction)

The GWU has declared an industrial dispute at Air Malta and warned of industrial action over what it said were abuses by the management regarding job vacancies.

It said that the collective agreement provided that those workers who were performing work of a higher grade for a year would be promoted. However that was not happening, with workers sometimes taken off their substitution work for a day so as to interrupt the one-year period provided for in the collective agreement.

The union urged the management to promote those workers who have been doing work which is not their own for a number of years.

Air Malta in a reaction to the GWU statement said that during the last four years it had filled any vacant posts through the process of a call for applications which is first issued internally. This policy ensured better corporate governance, giving all employees within the airline a equal opportunities, increased job mobility within the organisation and enhancing skills and experience.

“The airline feels that the practice of direct promotion via a period of substitution to a higher grade is inherently an unjust one, and the company does not want to follow this practice. Unfortunately the GWU appears to be favouring such a practice,” the airline said.