Tribunal rules that Air Malta should recognise engineers' union

An industrial tribunal has ruled that Air Malta should recognise the Association of Airline Engineers (AAE) (Malta) as the official union representing the airline's engineers. The tribunal's decision was unanimous and is with immediate effect.

The AAE was formed last year to promote airline safety and represents the airline's 55 engineers. It is affilitated with Aircraft Engineers International, a group of over 35 affiliated associations and spans 23 countries, representing 16,000 airline engineers worldwide.

The Industrial Tribunal held that while workforce fragmentation should not be encouraged, this should not exclude the recognition of a union that represents a specific category with special interests.

In this particular case the engineers were qualified and licensed to carry out work of a very high level of responsibility and could only certify such work themselves.

The tribunal ruled that this was a "specific, separate and distinct group" with special interests that would be best served by separate union representation.

The union's president, Ing. Adrian Rizzo, said that the AAE represented over 92 per cent of the airline's 55 engineers and that Maltese law placed the full responsibility of aircraft worthiness, safety and reliability on the AAE's members.