‘Job cuts not yet finalised’

Air Malta chief executive Peter Davies is defending his decision not to divulge the exact number of job cuts in the airline’s different sections during Friday’s meeting with employees.

He said yesterday the rationalisation exercise to determine the number of job to be shed had not yet been concluded. “I did not want to cause undue anxiety,” he said when asked why the details were kept under wraps. At a meeting for all employees on Friday, which was closed to the media, Mr Davies said the airline would have to shed 511 jobs from all sections without giving a detailed breakdown of how the job losses will be apportioned.

A leaked draft of the restructuring plan drawn up by government consultants Ernst and Young said the company would have to dismiss 57 pilots, 53 cabin crew, 21 engineers, 190 ground handlers and 190 office workers for a total of 511 jobs.

The publication of the report details caused a stir among Air Malta employees with pilots threatening to ground all flights because of what they described as “a defective” restructuring plan.

Mr Davies confirmed he would be meeting Airline Pilots Association president Domenic Azzopardi tomorrow in a bid to avert strike action.

Capt. Azzopardi said pilots would be holding a protest on July15 and grounding all aircraft the day after.

The pilots referred to the passenger charges levied by Malta International Airport, which, they said, cost the airline about €23 million a year. Pilots insist the charges are exorbitant and on Sunday called for a three-year moratorium on such charges.

Mr Davies said he was having talks with MIA over the airport charges, adding: “MIA’s charges are not exorbitant. They are substantially lower than expensive airports and higher than cheaper airports. They have agreed to some reductions but I am still engaged in talks with them.”

The draft restructuring plan questions MIA’s relatively high charges, which, according to the report, represent a 50 per cent premium on the average charge of comparable airports analysed by Ernst and Young.

When asked why Air Malta has so far refused to publish the finalised version of the restructuring plan sent to Brussels, Mr Davies insisted it contained sensitive commercial information.

“I will not publish the restructuring plan because it contains commercially sensitive information, which will only benefit our competitors. This is a sensitive time and one where we have to be careful,” he said.

Air Malta said on Sunday the published draft report was not based on the finalised version sent to the European Commission, insisting the amendments were not reflected in press reports on the leaked draft. It did not say what changes were made and the published details have not been disputed.

The Labour Party and Alternattiva Demokratika yesterday criticised the government’s handling of the situation.

Labour deputy leader Anġlu Farrugia laid the blame for the state Air Malta was in squarely on the Prime Minister’s shoulders. “Even though he knew how the situation was developing, Lawrence Gonzi still sent letters to employees with a number of promises,” Dr Farrugia said, with reference to the pre-electoral job guarantees given to workers in a number of government companies, including Air Malta.

He accused the Prime Minister of expecting workers to ignore the promises now that redundancies are being considered.

AD chairman Michael Briguglio said successive Nationalist and Labour Administrations were to blame for using Air Malta as “a Father Christmas” to dish out jobs for votes.

He called on the government to accept political responsibility for the present state of affairs and said workers had to be kept informed of developments.

Workers should be absorbed by the public sector if vacancies existed in productive employment, he added, or else be employed in the private sector. Early retirement schemes should be used as a last resort, Dr Briguglio said.