The Airline Pilots Association (Alpa) said it was not surprised Air Malta was "hiding behind its 1,400 employees" when reacting to its work-to-rule directives.

The two sides are at loggerheads again despite signing a collective agreement in January 2008 that should have ironed out long pending issues. Pilots are following a work-to-rule directive.

On Sunday Air Malta accused Alpa of being consistently negative, and even after the collective agreement was signed, it resumed "its negative, insensitive and threatening approach in each and every matter it was discussing with the airline".

It also said it offered Alpa the loss-of-licence cover for pilots who were over 55, in line with expert advice. Alpa's request would have rewarded pilots with excessive compensation and encouraged them to lose their licence once they reached 55.

Alpa yesterday rebutted these accusations, saying Air Malta was contractually obliged to provide for loss-of-licence insurance, and the national airline was going back on these obligations by attempting to renegotiate a signed collective agreement.

The association pointed out that the directives focused on other issues, saying "several parts" of the collective agreement had taken "months to be implemented and some have not been implemented at all".

It said the airline was issuing threatening letters to pilots "who took as little as 11 days' sick leave in one year", pointing out that pilots were obliged by law not to fly when suffering from even a common cold.

The association also accused Air Malta of creating new work practices which restricted the application of the collective agreement, some of which could be easily resolved at no extra cost.

Alpa said only recently an Air Malta general manager attempted to do without an in-flight rest area, which was a requirement to ensure fatigue levels were kept to a minimum on long flights, by asking the concerned pilot to accept payment instead. The association said it had lodged a report with the Department of Civil Aviation, citing it as a "serious incident".

The pilot's association said for the very benefit of the company and its customers, the situation had be addressed as soon as possible, saying that Air Malta's pilots would once again offer "110 per cent" of their abilities to the company.