ALPA request police investigate Air Malta's directors on pilot redundancies

The pilots’ union has filed criminal complaints with the Police Commissioner and with the Director General for Industrial and Employment Relations (DIER), requesting an investigation into the conduct and dealings of Air Malta’s directors, managers and other officials.

The criminal complaint has to do with the collective pilot redundancies contemplated by the airline, and with the “illegal unilateral variation" in the conditions of employment of the pilots which have been retained, which conditions were drawn up before any agreement on the matter was reached with ALPA, the union said on Thursday.

ALPA also filed a judicial protest holding Air Malta responsible for acting contrary to the terms of a warrant of prohibitor injunction blocking the redundancies, which was upheld by the court last week.

The union said that it had previously filed another criminal complaint, on 24 May last year, in relation to Air Malta’s failure to allow its members to use their leave entitlement and on the company’s failure to pay wages.

“Regrettably, no action was taken by the relative authorities in this respect and the company has opted to ignore the issue completely,” the union lamented.

“ALPA remains determined to safeguard the conditions of employment of all its members without distinction and will resort to all means necessary in order to protect their interests,” it added.