Air Malta pilots yesterday called off the strike they had been planning to stage on Saturday, following a three-hour meeting with the airline’s management, presided over by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi at Castille.

The strike had been opposed by the tourism industry and even by other unions, while dire warnings had been sounded of a potential collapse of the airline had it gone ahead.

“All strike actions by the pilots have been withdrawn,” said a joint statement issued shortly after the meeting was concluded.

However, Airline Pilots’ Association (Alpa) president Domenic Azzopardi confirmed that a demonstration would still be held tomorrow.

The pilots will be joined by the General Workers’ Union and the Union of Cabin Crew. The Association of Airline Engineers had until yesterday not declared whether they would take part.

According to the statement, Air Malta and the pilots’ association agreed to work closely to secure a better deal for the airline with Malta International Airport, improve Air Malta’s performance, seek new opportunities on cargo and overcome all challenges to make the company profitable again.

“On the issues pertaining to the complement of pilots within the restructuring process, while Alpa recognises the need to reduce the number of pilots, management will engage in active discussions with Alpa to maximise utilisation of the crew complement,” the statement said.

As a result of the agreement, the company agreed to withdraw all legal action against the union.

The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Tonio Fenech, Air Malta chairman Louis Farrugia, its CEO Peter Davies, and Capt. Azzopardi, Capt. Charmaine St John and First Officer Ryan Xuereb from the association.

In announcing the strike action, the pilots had complained about the airline’s plans to dismiss some of them as part of the restructuring exercise and insisted that before any jobs were terminated, the company should renegotiate third party contracts, including that with MIA.

The airline had said it would let go 511 workers and, according to the draft restructuring plan leaked to The Sunday Times, some 57 pilots were set to lose their job. However, Alpa says it is still in the dark on the precise number, although 12 pilots have been informed that their temporary contracts will not be extended and one pilot has been put on notice.

Earlier yesterday, before the meeting, the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association had warned the association and its members that they would be sued individually to recoup any losses they would have incurred as a result of the strike action.

“The proposed strike is totally irresponsible and will not only risk crippling the national airline but will also cause untold damage to Malta’s image, the tourism industry and to the Maltese economy as a whole,” the association said in its statement.

Also earlier yesterday, Air Malta published a letter sent by Mr Davies to Alpa’s legal adviser, Chris Cilia, who had written to the airline informing it of the pilots’ intention to strike.

Alpa had listed three reasons for the strike: the termination of the employment of 13 pilots, the airline’s failure to initiate discussions on a new collective agreement and the absence of consultation or discussion with the union in the restructuring process.

In his reply, Mr Davies told the union that Air Malta had written to Alpa in January last year declaring how it intended to renew the Air Malta/Alpa collective agreement and Alpa’s secretary at the time acknowledged the letter by an e-mail in February when a number of improvements were requested.

These included a 30 per cent increase in basic salary, clarification of clauses under dispute and a collective agreement valid from August 1, 2010 to July 31 this year.

Mr Davies said the requests would have equated to an average annual increase of €25,000 per pilot and that the airline considered this “unreasonable”, even more so since the request was based on a collective agreement which would have expired within 12 months.

Given the difficult circumstances being faced by the company, the proposed increase in salary could not be considered favourably by the airline, he said.

Notwithstanding this, after months of discussion, an agreement was signed in May this year to address the clarification of clauses under dispute.

On the termination of employment of 13 pilots, Mr Davies said these pilots’ contracts were on a definite basis and due to expire in August and September.

Air Malta’s letter, he said, was confirmation that their contracts were not going to be renewed and not an arbitrary termination of employment. This was in line with the contractual obligation that Air Malta had entered into with the pilots and it was known to and accepted by all interested parties.

On its complaint of lack of participation, Mr Davies said the pilots’ association was part of the steering committee on the restructuring of the airline.

Meanwhile, the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin said it had had a meeting with Finance Minister Tonio Fenech on the future of certain employees at Air Malta.

It quoted Mr Fenech as saying that the government could offer redundant workers alternative employment but this had to be seen in the light of the discussions with the European Commission on the airline’s restructuring programme.

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