Air Malta ploughs ahead with redundancy notices

The General Workers’ Union has criticised Air Malta for ploughing ahead with its decision to issue redundancy notices to 58 Selmun Palace Hotel workers even though the company is still in talks with the union.

The hotel is operated by a subsidiary of Air Malta and two weeks ago employees were informed that it was closing down.

During the talks, held in front of the Director of Labour, the union is asking the company to retain the workers on its books and transfer them to the new owners when the hotel is sold.

Alternatively, the union wants the employees to be temporarily absorbed by the government and a condition included in the sale agreement so that the eventual buyer will re-employ the workers.

However, according to the GWU the company and the government are refusing both options.

“The government is being insensitive towards workers and their families,” GWU section secretary Josef Bugeja said when contacted.

Mr Bugeja insisted that the union’s aim was to see the 58 workers employed in the hotel business rather than registering for unemployment benefits.

“With the employees made officially redundant and without a clause in the tender saying that the hotel’s new owners are obliged to employ them, workers will not have a job guarantee,” he said.

Until the sale goes through, which may take more than a year, Mr Bugeja said, the union wanted the government to offer workers temporary employment with Industrial Projects and Services Ltd.

IPSL is a government-owned company that has absorbed redundant workers whenever state-owned companies are restructured.