MIA aviation security staff back at work

Thanks to the concerted effort of the General Workers' Union and the Union Haddiema Maghqudin - and after several days of industrial actions ordered by both unions - security company G4S has retracted from an original decision to lay off 23 of its employees working as security at the Malta International Airport.

In a statement, the GWU said that the workers who had been laid off have now been reemployed, some to remain at the airport while others will be allocated to different sites operated by G4S.

The union added that there will be no changes to the working conditions.

The first to break the news, MaltaToday has reported that the redundancies had been the latest development in a dispute between the approximately 50 aviation security staff stationed at MIA, and G4S, who won the tender to operate the MIA's aviation security service in January of this year.

G4S inherited the complement of approximately 50-strong aviation security staff, who were previously employed with the company who held the tender before it. However, G4S planned to downsize the security staff stationed at the airport. The company had insisted that its decision was purely based on the fact that it is not financially viable to station a high complement of staff at the MIA when incoming tourism is low, such as during the winter months.

The decision however sparked an angry reaction among the aviation security staff who went on 'work slow' directives on an indefinite basis in protest.