A civil court has definitively upheld Air Malta's request for a warrant of prohibitory injunction against the pilots’ union, barring its members from resorting to industrial action.

The national airline had filed the request earlier in July after pilots' union ALPA had served notice that it would begin industrial action over an ongoing dispute.

ALPA says the dispute concerns collective agreement breaches, while the government has said that pilots just want to be guaranteed a €700,000 golden handshake if they retire early.   

Union representatives had testified in court claiming that they had faced unfounded threats of disciplinary action.

They also blamed the breakdown in negotiations on the involvement of chief flight operations officer Emvic Debono, saying their request for him to be withdrawn from the negotiating table was ignored. 

Moreover, they were calling for the restoration of a health insurance scheme for pilots, the union officials had said.

The airline’s chief commercial officer had, on the other hand, testified that Air Malta risked making an estimated daily loss of €160,000 if the industrial action went ahead.

In a decision handed down on Tuesday, the First Hall, Civil Court, presided over by Mr Justice Toni Abela, declared that Air Malta had proven that it had a right to the injunction and confirmed the warrant which had been provisionally upheld on July 1.

The decision effectively prohibits ALPA from undertaking the planned industrial action.