Labour MP Robert Abela has insisted there was no conflict of interest in acting as legal representative of Air Malta while his father, President Emeritus George Abela, was acting as mediator and chief negotiator in talks with pilots.
“No one really objected to my presence, and I was just conducting my professional work as Air Malta’s industrial relations consultant,” Dr Abela said when contacted.
When it was suggested he could have excused himself, given that the negotiations were led by his father, who is a member of law office Abela Advocates with him, the Labour MP said he could not see any problem.
“I have a different personality from my father and I do my work professionally,” he insisted. “After all, my father is retired and does not even come to my office any longer,” he said.
The Abela Advocates website describes both the President Emeritus and his son as “the experts” offering services at the law firm.
Sources close to the pilots’ union, Alpa, deemed Dr Abela’s presence on the negotiations table to be “very odd and something that is highly unprofessional. However, we had our own lawyers, so we didn’t really bother about who was accompanying Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi,” they said.
Dr Abela was appointed consultant to the State airline last year following a call for quotations. According to a parliamentary question, he was paid more than €10,000 in 2016.
Under the previous, Nationalist administration, Abela Advocates were appointed to provide legal services to the Planning Authority. They have kept the brief since. Information tabled in Parliament recently showed that the firm received €110,000 in 2017, €168,000 in 2016 and €110,000 in 2015 for its work at the Planning Authority.
The agreement reached on Monday night between Air Malta and the pilots concluded all the talks on new collective agreements with the five categories of workers at the national airline. This will enable it to obtain additional credit from the banks to make a fresh attempt at a financial turnaround.
The government declined to give any details of the agreement, but an Alpa spokesman said all issues had been ironed out, including salaries and conditions.
Confirming increases in the pilots’ financial packages, he said that work practices would be completely changed and any additional wage increases would be related to additional flying hours. Pilots currently earn an average of €120,000 a year,
According to government plans, Air Malta was to break even in 2017. However, it ended the financial year with a €13 million loss. Dr Mizzi said the carrier was expected to break even by March.