Striking Air Malta cabin crew could face dismissal

Cabin crew who refused to operate a slightly delayed flight could face dismissal if they are found to have jeopardised the goodwill of Air Malta, airline chairman Lawrence Zammit said yesterday.

Air Malta faces a hefty €109,000 bill following a 16-hour delay caused by cabin crew who refused to operate a flight to Moscow because it would have exceeded their flying time limit by just three minutes.

The Union of Cabin Crew warned that it could resort to a full-blown strike after Air Malta said it would be filing a judicial protest against both the union and the five cabin crew who refused to operate Thursday's flight to Moscow. The 16-hour delay caused delays on two other return flights to Manchester and Vienna.

Union president David Sargent said action against cabin crew was unacceptable since they were simply obeying a union directive which did not allow them to exceed 12 hours of flying time.

"If Air Malta goes ahead with this (action against the crew), it will have to face big consequences. More than one flight will be stopped," Mr Sargent warned.

Asked whether he was referring to a strike, Mr Sargent said his union was not ruling out anything. A decision will be taken by the union's committee, which is due to meet tomorrow.

"We have to see whether Air Malta will go ahead with its threat. If it was solely meant as intimidation and not carried through, we will turn a blind eye."

The incident was sparked by an 18-minute delay on the Moscow flight last Thursday. The cabin crew refused to operate the flight, arguing the delay would mean their 12-hour flight time limitation would be exceeded by three minutes.

The EU imposes an 11-hour limitation, but this can be extended by two hours. However, at the end of 2008 the union had directed its members to only work an extra hour, bringing the maximum flight time to 12 hours.

"We turned a blind eye on many occasions when it was just a question of exceeding the flight time limitation by five minutes, but we have reached a stage where there is too much pressure from Air Malta regarding working conditions. They have made their point and we are making ours," Mr Sargent said.

"Sometimes they inform the cockpit of a delay but still expect us to report for work at the scheduled time."

He said Thursday's dispute could have easily been averted had the five cabin crew been informed of the delay before leaving their homes, they would have just reported for work 18 minutes later.

He also said it was worrying to note that no standby staff were available to replace those who refused to operate the flight. But the Air Malta chairman said replacing cabin crew with standby personnel was not easy. Mr Zammit also revealed that the flight captain had offered to cut down the flying time to make up for the delay, but this was refused.

"Delays happen. What should we do? Close the Moscow route? We are not prepared to do this," he said.

Mr Zammit said the airline was very concerned about the impact the action would have on Air Malta's goodwill.

"The cabin crew acted irresponsibly during a difficult period when we have to face reduced demand because of the international recession, where we need to recover from last summer's high fuel prices, and when we have been affected by the fall in the value of the sterling. The union is playing with fire and gambling with its members' jobs," he said.

He said the airline would "fight tooth and nail" to safeguard its interest and those of its employees.