Cabin crew union threatens delays

The Union of Cabin Crew warned Air Malta that unless tangible improvement is registered in the airline's pay offer for the cabin crew by tomorrow, it would order members to report for work two hours late on Saturday.

Consequently, all flights would be delayed by two hours.

The UCC also warned that this may not be a one-time action.

In a statement last night, a spokesman for Air Malta said that the airline is surprised at the statement which was issued a few hours after talks over the issue were held.

The spokesman said Air Malta is also surprised because it did not receive feedback from the UCC.

The spokesman said that the threat of industrial action comes at a time when other airlines have either reduced staff or have proposed to cut a month's salary because of the economic situation. But Air Malta had never proposed anything of the sort.

The spokesman added that the threat also comes at a time when Air Malta had invested heavily in an effort to increase tourism to Malta.

The UCC had already issued two directives in the beginning of this month: a work-to-rule and reduced on-board in-flight service to pressure the carrier to come to an agreement on the new contract.

It said the directives were intended to last until the company improved its initial financial proposal of a 10 per cent increase over a three-year period.

The union said the company failed to show signs of accepting the claim of 17 per cent over a four-year period and instead wanted to take the matter to an industrial tribunal. The company had now offered 17 per cent over a six-year period with no cost-of-living increases, the union added.

The union said it felt that proposed productive and flexibility measures were downplayed by the company in order to devalue past productive measures. Since 2003, the cabin crew complement on Air Malta flights was reduced by as much as 33 per cent on certain flights. A further reduction was being proposed by the union, taking into consideration the workload and the market competition the company was facing.

The union said that last Friday the management decided to leave the matter on hold until the next board of directors' meeting on Wednesday.

The union said it had asked whether the issue could be treated with more urgency and whether the board could be convened at an earlier date as it could not allow further feet-dragging tactics. However, there was no assurance from the management that this would materialise although further meetings were held between the union and the management.