Around 150 Air Malta employees are complaining about a new roster the airline wants to introduce which, among other things, includes a three-hour shift starting at 1am.

The secretary of the General Workers’ Union’s section representing the staff members, Charles Agius, said the new roster would cause undue hardship on workers, especially the “nonsensical” three-hour shift that ends at 4am.

He said these Air Malta employees, including those who worked in passenger and baggage handling, were “disillusioned” with the company’s new “easy roster” proposals that would cause “inconvenience”.

Mr Agius said the company purchased software that worked out the roster for €30,000. The computer programme automatically decides the number of people needed according to the flight details inputted manually.

In a statement, the GWU said it had talks with Air Malta, leading to postponement of the introduction of the new roster due to the union’s objections.

The union said it would not accept that Air Malta’s employees suffered unnecessary hardship due to the implementation of the new roster, adding that Finance Minister Tonio Fenech promised he would look into the issue.

“We are not against introducing a roster that suits the company and helps it improve efficiency and effectiveness but we cannot allow this to happen to the detriment of workers.

The 1am shift can easily be included in the earlier shift, for example. We have made our proposals and we are discussing them with the airline,” Mr Agius said.

Efforts to contact the airline were unsuccessful.