Updated: Air Malta "surprised" by cabin crew directives

(Adds MHRA statement)

Air Malta said today it was surprised with the latest directives issued by the Union of Cabin Crew, a few hours after the airline presented its latest proposal to the union.

The airline said in a statement the directives were issued before the airline received any reaction from the union and before the proposal was presented to the union’s members for their consideration.

The Union of Cabin Crew warned Air Malta yesterday evening that unless it improved its pay offer by tomorrow (Friday), it would order its members to report for work two hours late on Saturday. This would delay flights by two hours.

Its latest proposal, Air Malta said, was at par with the Union of Cabin Crew overall financial request with the sole difference being that the increase was spread over five-and-a-half years instead of four.

"Whilst acknowledging the fact that discussions have been ongoing for the last two years it has to be noted that over 95 percent of the agreement was agreed between the airline and the UCC. Only the financial package remained to be discussed.

"However, three weeks ago, to the airline’s surprise, the union changed goalposts on several items that were previously agreed upon. Thus the union’s claim that the airline is dragging its feet is unfounded," Air Malta said.

It emphasised that in its discussions with the union it had to ensure long-term viability to the benefit of both its employees and the tourism industry.

"These new directives come at a time when other well established European airlines have either announced significant reductions in their cabin crew resource level or have requested their staff to work without pay for a month," it said.

Air Malta said that such actions were harming its reputation and were creating unnecessary inconveniences to its passengers.

"The airline will continue to strive to reach a win - win solution for both the airline and the cabin crew and is open to further negotiations," Air Malta said.

In a statement, the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association condemned "any industrial action from any quarter at a time when all industries are doing their utmost to keep operations running with a minimum loss of jobs".

It said that without going into the merits of the case , Air Malta cabin crew’s threat to go on strike was unacceptable at a time when the national airline was struggling to survive through the worst tourism recession ever experienced, with unprecedented fuel bills and cutthroat competition on the international market.

"One would expect that workers in tourism would be looking at ways of increasing their productivity and means of giving more value for money to customers who chose to visit our island, rather than making threats of strike action at this moment in time. Workers everywhere are losing their jobs, while others are struggling hard to retain theirs. It is therefore a very untimely moment to be making threats of industrial action whether these are based on justified claims or not," MHRA said.

It said htat similarly to all other holiday destinations, Malta was suffering badly from a huge drop in visitors and revenue and tourism operators were doing their utmost to attract enough business to at least retain minimum volumes and safeguard the livelihood of many.

"Any strike action at this moment in time could undermine all the efforts being made by both the private sector and government and deal a final blow to our national airline with dire consequences to all.

"MHRA categorically opposes this threatened industrial action and suggests to the Air Malta cabin crew to employ some common sense and postpone their claims until better times."

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