The European Cockpit Association has urged the Government to resolve the issues with Air Malta by “using EU funds and any other means available in order to provide fair support for the duration of the crisis”.
Association President Jon Horne noted that the COVID-19 pandemic is hitting workers across Europe very hard, aviation being one of worst hit sectors.
He accused Air Malta of failing to conduct a proper consultation process in line with EU legislation throughout its dispute with the pilots over redundancy plans.
“Furthermore, and contrary to EU law, the jobs of Air Malta are being replaced by bogus self-employed crews recruited by a UK agency following Air Malta’s decision to allegedly transfer charter operations to the wholly-owned Government of Malta company, MedAir,” he said.
Malta MedAir was registered in January 2018 under the name Malta Air Travel Ltd. The company, which owns an Airbus A320 and four daily take-offs and landing rights at Heathrow and Gatwick airports, made its first commercial flight on 27th March 2018 on behalf of Air Malta. Last Saturday, it operated its own first scheduled flight on the Malta-Warsaw route.
Philip von Schöppenthau, the European pilots’ association’s Secretary General, said that “rather than Malta becoming a ‘flag of convenience’ and sponsoring social engineering through precarious broker-agency set-ups, bogus self-employment must be actively fought to preserve a level playing field in the European aviation market and the rights of European workers”.
In mid-July, the UK-based company Brookfield carried notices in the Maltese press calling for the recruitment of A320 captains and first officers, “offering an attractive package and opportunity in Malta”. It had said the contract would start in August 2020.
Efforts by whoswho.mt to seek more information on the call from Brookfield had proved futile and requests sent via email remained unanswered.
Air Malta would not comment on the statement issued by the European Cockpit Association, which was set up in 1991 and says it represents over 40,000 European pilots from the national pilot associations in 33 European states.
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