Four months have passed since 69 of Air Malta’s pilots were made redundant. First officer Luke Mifsud tells Matthew Xuereb what happened behind the scenes and how they ended up unemployed.
It was 11pm on a Friday in May when 69 pilots received an e-mail informing them that their jobs were being terminated. This was the culmination of more than six months of “psychological warfare”, according to Luke Mifsud, a former Air Malta pilot.
He says that although he was lucky enough not to have any major commitments and was eating away at money he and his wife had put away for a rainy day, others were facing a worse predicament.
The 69 included two couples who worked as pilots and who both lost their jobs at the same time.
“Most of us found out about our redundancy through the news organisations, including myself. We were bullied by management, vilified by the government and ignored by everyone,” he said.
Mifsud admitted there have always been issues between the airline and the pilots. Pre-COVID-19, the main problem was on the interpretation of roster practices, but the pilots’ union told members to ignore pending issues and assist the company in rostering the repatriation and cargo flights due to the pandemic.
When the pandemic hit, most flights were stopped and airline crews lost 30 per cent of their salaries overnight because this is pegged to productivity.
Mifsud said the company made it appear as though a pilot joining Air Malta earns €150,000 a year from day one, which is a far cry from the starting salary of €23,000.
Not even a captain employed with the company for 30 years earns that much. He said this was just “a string of lies meant to harm and belittle the pilot community”.
Mifsud said pilots only learnt through the newspaper that the company had written to the Department of Industrial and Employment Relations (DIER) that negotiations had failed and that 108 out of the 134 pilots were going to be made redundant.
“Negotiations could not have failed as they had never even started. The company tried to force what they have been calling a ‘social wage’ onto the pilots. What was offered as a take-it-or-leave-it deal was a monthly wage of €1,200 for all pilots, whether you are a captain, a first officer or a cadet,” he said.
“[Our] union was trying to push for proper burden sharing from top to bottom, and not have it placed disproportionately on a specific group of individuals.”
He said the pilots’ union proposed a 50 per cent pay cut, but the reply was a salary cap for all pilots and permanent changes to the collective agreement, including the removal of the right to industrial action.
We were bullied by management, vilified by the government and ignored by everybody else
The airline changed its plan to keep 62 pilots instead of the 26 it originally wanted. Mifsud said a meeting was held with Prime Minister Robert Abela and Economy Minister Silvio Schembri but what took place later was “a charade”.
The sacked pilots return their uniforms.The company decided it wanted to buy the early retirement scheme clause out of the collective agreement and asked the union for a valuation for the scheme.
Mifsud said the union made two calculations: €190 million if every pilot remained with Air Malta till they reach 55, and €73 million if everyone took retirement. The company agreed with the values, having come to the same conclusion, but then only offered €20 million to buy out the clause just five days after saying it did not have the money to pay the salaries.
He said discussions were being held but all of a sudden an e-mail was sent informing all pilots of the decision to make 69 pilots redundant and demote 31 captains to first officers. While captains hold a qualification to operate from the first officer’s seat, this only allows them to do so in a limited capacity.
“This was done to humiliate and belittle the pilot community and try to back the union and its members into a corner. The pilots never refused anything up until this point as there was nothing tangible to refuse.”
Shortly after the redundancies, a call for applications through a recruitment agency based in England was released and eight former Air Malta pilots who had just been made redundant were employed with Med Air.
“It is a sad situation seeing the company showing no concrete plans for the future. While harsh measures were taken against the pilot community, some sections remained unaffected.
“It is more obvious to anyone that the intention was not to find a sustainable future for the airline but to undermine long-standing agreements and do away with any normal processes out of spite,” he said.
Mifsud said he was not covered by the work guarantee, which covers 51 of the 69 pilots. He said this was a sort of insurance to stop the government from closing Air Malta and shifting employees to Med Air with new conditions.
In return the pilots agreed to increase productivity by working longer hours and being more flexible in their work practices.
The 18 who are not covered by this work guarantee are six pilots who came to the company with experience working abroad and 12 cadets who had just started their flying career.
“The company offered proposals to divide and conquer. We are now waiting for the outcome of multiple court cases. Most are at a loss as to what to do. Some believe that if we register for unemployment or find work elsewhere, even if it is unrelated to aviation, this would put in jeopardy any contractual obligations,” he said.
“After Air Malta’s employees worked through the pandemic and gave a lifeline to the country, the company threw those employees away.
“We are currently living in a climate of fear. People are scared to speak up against injustice for fear of being further punished.
“Our situation was handled very poorly with very little thought about the lives of the pilots and their families.
“Now that the economy is starting to recover, Air Malta has been abandoned in favour of Med Air,” he said.