Air Malta announced today that it would starting talks with the GWU and three other unions tomorrow on voluntary redundancy schemes and new work practices which need to be introduced as part of the restructuring programme.

In a statement issued just hours after the GWU declared an industrial dispute with the airline, Air Malta said the changes which will be discussed in the talks will help make the airline profitable and save at least 800 jobs.

The GWU said it had declared an industrial dispute because Air Malta had not guaranteed alternative jobs for the 511 workers it plans to shed.

Air Malta in its statement this evening said that the GWU had already agreed on tomorrow's talks, and its declaration of a dispute  before negotiations were carried out was out of order.

The airline said it could not not guarantee jobs since it was a commercial concern. It said it would register its disagreement with the GWU by filing a judicial protest tomorrow. The airline said it would reserve the right to take further legal action to protect its interests.

"The threat of industrial action is already damaging the airline," it said, while calling on all unions to act responsible. 

In its statement, the union recalled that it had set a June 30 deadline for a guarantee of jobs. 

The union said it would continue to insist that the workers should be given a job so that they could then be able to decide their future once they could see the full picture.

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said last month that the government could not offer alternative jobs because that was forbidden under EU rules since it was considered to be state aid.

He said, however, that the government would offer generous early retirement schemes as had been done in other cases, in what appeared to be a reference to the dockyard.