A golden handshake does not sit well with Air Malta employees and one clerk is even prepared to sweep the floors as long as he has a job.
“What are the chances of finding alternative employment if the government gives me a lump sum to leave instead of redeploying me elsewhere,” a 36-year-old asked.
The father of two children aged three and five has been working at Air Malta for eight years and fears that without the proper qualifications there is no way he can stand his ground against graduates in the race for jobs.
“At the end of the day I need to take a paycheque home. I’ll even sweep the floors if necessary as long as I have a job. Air Malta has never invested in training its employees, so without qualifications I’ll be on the street,” he said.
He feels it is all well and good for economists to say redeploying redundant Air Malta employees within the public service will cost the country more than a golden handshake, but what about the consequences of unemployment?
These comments, he said, only served to fuel the public’s antagonism towards Air Malta employees, when they had nothing to do with the way the company had been allowed to become a bloated, money-losing machine over the years.
He is afraid of what the future holds, and optimism eludes him as he recalls how a former manager who was laid off ended up working as a receptionist at a two-star hotel.
“The mention of a golden handshake felt like a stab to the heart,” he said.
The man is one of several Air Malta employees who spoke to The Sunday Times on condition of anonymity to express their feelings.
The uncertain future hangs like a guillotine over their heads, halting any plans or projects that involve obtaining a loan or spending money.
According to the General Workers’ Union, some 500 Air Malta office workers and ground handling employees will be laid off.
In all, the government is expected to shed around half of its 1,200-strong workforce in its mission to keep the national airline, which experienced severe losses over the past years, afloat.
Late last year, the European Commission gave the government the go-ahead to pump €52 million in emergency aid into the airline.
When this cash injection was accepted, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech had said in Parliament that Air Malta was facing a liquidity problem and the money would allow it a six-month respite to pay its suppliers.
According to the Commission the company required major surgery if was to survive beyond May. It said Air Malta has been in the red since at least 2003 but the situation worsened from 2009 due to rising fuel costs and the loss of market share to low-cost airlines.
The restructuring plan by Ernst and Young to overhaul the national carrier has to be submitted in May. The government has remained tight-lipped about the details as it continues discussions with individual unions. In the meantime, employees are in the dark about their future.
“I’m anxious to know how things will unfold. Everybody is concerned about how they will keep their household going next month,” a supervisor, who has been with Air Malta for 23 years, said.
The 41-year-old father of two young children is the family’s main breadwinner and he was equally upset to hear the term golden handshake.
“Beggars can’t be choosers but a golden handshake would be the biggest scandal. I cannot imagine doing another job, and an employer will surely choose a 25-year-old over me. I’m scared of starting from scratch,” he said.
A 38-year-old woman, who has been working with the company for 17 years, said her shifts helped her strike a balance between caring for her son and work, which would be hard to find elsewhere.
The general feeling among employees is one of betrayal, and they refer to the letter they received from Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi just before the last election when he had invited workers to vote “for certainty and a strong economy which guarantee your job”.
They are also angry at the government’s proposal to get rid of the last in, first out principle enshrined in their collective agreement. They fear this is only being done to retain the ‘blue-eyed boys’ who were employed more recently, at the expense of experience.
A 41-year-old man, whose wife also works with the company, is uneasy about the double blow that awaits his family, and he questions why the situation at the airline was left to fester for so long when it was making losses year after year.
“What hurt the most is that nothing was done. The red lights were signalling the alarming situation to us employees, but new workers were still employed back in 2004 when it was decided that salaries be frozen to stop the airline from sinking,” he said.
He reasoned that whether the government chose to absorb workers within the civil service or offer them a sum, the knife cut both ways, and at the end of the day employees had no say in the matter.
He admits finding alternative employment will be hard: “In my day, O-levels got you a job; these days you need at least a first degree.”
“I love working at the airport, but every day we come to work we look around wondering who of us will stay on. It’s a messy situation, and in the meantime workers remain in the bleak darkness of uncertainty.”