Fewer than 10 of around 350 Air Malta ground handling staff have been transferred to new jobs in the public sector as a relocation deadline nears, according to the General Workers Union.
General secretary Josef Bugeja confirmed the figure as concerned employees told Times of Malta they have been “left hanging” and feel demoralised as they wait to find out what their future holds.
The ground-handling staff are part of a wider group of 571 employees who opted into the scheme which Finance Minister Clyde Caruana said would save the struggling airline €15 million a year in a “last chance” attempt to save it.
Bugeja said the agreement with the government was signed on February 11 and it set a six-month time frame for the completion of the relocation of the employees.
He said the agreement stipulated workers’ salaries and conditions would not be affected upon transfer.
Very few of the overall total have been relocated as there seems to be a particular delay affecting the ground handlers.
“We have been told we need to be out of here by August 12 and we still don’t know where we’re going. Only a handful of us have been relocated,” one frustrated loader said.
“Many of us have served the airline for 20, 25 even 30 years and, yet, now we are being left hanging,” he said.
The worker said he was only aware of only four colleagues who had moved on.
“It is demoralising coming here. We all come to work half-heartedly."
Another employee from the passenger handling services section said he was finding the situation distressing.
“The uncertainty is taking its toll on us. We need to make plans but we don’t know where we will be in two months’ time,” he said.
Some Air Malta employees felt aggrieved to find out that ONE TV presenter Karl Stagno Navarra has already been given a new job at the Occupational Health and Safety Agency while they await their fate.
“People like Karl Stagno Navarra manage to get relocated immediately,” one said.
Another employee from the cargo section said the relocation was proving to be a lengthy process.
“It took one person I know seven weeks to finalise everything. Someone else was kept waiting for nine weeks,” he said.
The GWU secretary put the delay down to the relocation happening in two phases, first shifting the administration and flight services staff and then the ground handling workers.
He said he was aware that only a few workers had moved to other employment.
“Of a total of around 350 workers, so far, I would say around 10 were moved. Not more than 10,” he said.
But, despite the looming deadline, the GWU official said he was confident everything would be settled in time.
“The government cannot tell Air Malta employees ‘I don’t have a place for you’. There is an agreement. They must take all the workers,” he said.
Asked whether the union would accept an offer by the government to give a lump sum to applicants of the scheme instead of providing them with alternative employment, Bugeja said it would not.
“We will not backtrack on our demands. Such an alternative was never discussed,” he said.
Bugeja said the union was having weekly discussions with the workers to keep tabs on any developments.
Questions sent to the finance minister asking how many Air Malta employees have been relocated, when the exercise will be completed and whether there was a contingency plan should not all 571 applicants be successfully shifted to another department or entity were unanswered at the time of writing.