Pilots take exception at Air Malta CEO’s ‘pathetic’ comment on industrial action

The Air Malta pilots' union, ALPA, has denied reports which stated that all pilots get €750 for every leave day cancelled by the airline. In MaltaToday's report, published on Sunday 25 August, the airline said that its pilots were being paid tens of thousands of euros during peak months when the airline has to reduce just one day of leave to keep more pilots on its busy schedule and workload.

With the pilots' union demanding an increase in cockpit staffing, Air Malta's chief executive Peter Davies vowed to take on the union and stop "a mentality where they think Air Malta is their private flying club".

However, in a statement issued by ALPA's executive committee, the pilots said the report "was at best totally misleading, and at worst factually wrong" saying Davies's claim that pilots treated the airline as their own club was offensive and "pathetic."

The pilots pointed out that they "were the only group of people who in the past forked out money in order to save the airline."

Davies was complaining about a Collective Agreement he himself negotiated and signed back in October 2012, the pilots' union said.

"At the time, Air Malta at the helm of Peter Davies said that 'the agreement, which was negotiated within the same parameters as other agreements reached with the other Unions meets the requirements of the restructuring plan and is in line with the financial cost constraints of the company'," ALPA said.

The pilots expressed their surprise at Davies' comments given the agreement was only signed 10 months ago.

"Surprisingly enough, ten months down the line, the same CEO feels and explicitly expresses his concern that the Collective Agreement is a liability to the company."

On the €750 payment granted to pilots for every leave day cancelled by the airline, ALPA said: "The company's management goes so far as to say that the company incurs a penalty of €750 per pilot for every time it cancels a day's leave. The Collective Agreement states that prior to cancelling any leave, which was initially approved by the company, the crew must have worked over and above the normal parameters as prescribed in the Collective Agreement. In essence, it means that pilots have 3 off days less than the stipulated number of off days in the Collective Agreement during the particular month."

The union added that while custom mandates that rest periods and leave must be distributed evenly throughout the year, Air Malta successfully negotiated with ALPA that certain blocks are spread over the year so that Air Malta will have lee-way in the distribution of leave during the peak flying periods.

They noted that Air Malta pilots are usually required to fill in their leave requests before the start of the financial year but Air Malta need only approve the leave by  three months in advance.

Pilots are entitled to the same number of off days as any other employee, which stands at an average of two off days per week, ALPA said.

"The only difference is that the company can move the off days around as it deems fit for the smooth running of the company especially in the peak season. In fact, the ALPA Collective Agreement grants pilots the possibility to work up to 6 days 23hrs ON and 1 day Off," the union explained.

In last week's report, the airline's management explained that according to the pilots' collective agreement, Air Malta ends up paying €750 to each of its 110 pilots if has to strike off one day of leave if it doesn't have enough pilots to fly its planes during busy months. The airline said that it has paid up to €82,000 in one peak month alone, due to this liability.

However the pilots' union retorted that Air Malta was trying to give the wrong impression to the public "by implying that pilots have longer off days than anyone else when in fact it may well be the contrary. A person who works office hours stops working at 5 pm on Friday and starts again at 8 am on Monday thus availing himself of 2 off days worth 63hrs. An Air Malta pilot can work till 23:59 on Friday and report for work at 7 am on Monday, thus availing himself of 2 days off worth 55hrs. That means a pilot's 2 days off may actually be 8 hrs less than those of an office worker."