An industrial tribunal has instructed Air Malta to pay a combined €585,000 in damages to 33 of its cabin crew members due to a discriminatory pay deal. 

The tribunal ruled that a collective agreement signed in 2017 and that came into force a year later breached the principle of equal pay for equal work.

That agreement granted workers a €1,000 increase in their take-home pay compared to their chosen best year between 2014 and 2017.

The 42 plaintiffs who initiated the case argued that this was discriminatory towards workers who were engaged after 2018, as it resulted in them receiving lesser pay for the same work, compared to fellow employees who were with the company before the agreement came into effect.

In a decision handed down in late July, Industrial Tribunal chair Geoffrey Vella agreed that this mechanism creates a discriminatory situation whereby employees within the same pay scale receive different pay.

The Tribunal found that the mechanism also created a discriminatory situation where employees on a lower pay scale were paid more than those at a higher scale.

According to the Tribunal, it is also discriminatory towards people who worked reduced hours between 2014 and 2017.

Several of the plaintiffs testified that they were working reduced hours during this period as a result of personal circumstances such as maternity leave, health issues or caregiving duties for family members.

Of the 42 plaintiffs who initiated the case, nine plaintiffs withdrew their claim during the proceedings. The Tribunal noted that of the remaining 33 plaintiffs, the majority were women, arguing that they were victims of indirect discrimination as a result of this mechanism.

The amounts awarded to each individual plaintiff ranged from just over €5,000 to a maximum of €35,520.

The beleaguered airline is set to close down by the end of the year and be replaced by a new airline after the European Commission turned the government's last-ditch efforts to pump €290 million into the company.