Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1164600
maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 11 SEPTEMBER 2019 22 SPORTS FOOTBALL Name & Surname .................................................................. Telephone: ........................................ Address ...................................................................................... E-mail: ........................................ YOU CAN RECEIVE BOTH THE MALTATODAY ON SUNDAY AND THE MALTATODAY MIDWEEK, FOR A PERIOD OF ONE YEAR. Send a cheque payable to MediaToday to: Subscriptions, MediaToday, Vjal il-Rihan, San Gwann, SGN 9016 The newspapers are delivered by post and therefore subject to the usual postal timings. Normally, MaltaToday on Sunday should arrive on Monday and the MaltaToday Midweek should arrive on the same day (Wednesday). Name & Surname .................................................................. Telephone: ........................................ Address ...................................................................................... E-mail: ........................................ YOU CAN RECEIVE THE MALTATODAY ON SUNDAY OR MALTATODAY MIDWEEK, FOR A PERIOD OF ONE YEAR. NEWSPAPER BY POST Send a cheque payable to MediaToday to: Subscriptions, MediaToday, Vjal il-Rihan, San Gwann, SGN 9016 The newspapers are delivered by post and therefore subject to the usual postal timings. Normally, MaltaToday on Sunday should arrive on Monday and the MaltaToday Midweek should arrive on the same day (Wednesday). WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT WEDNESDAY EDITION €1.00 Newspaper post PAGE 9 • Editorial WEDNESDAY • 17 JANUARY 2018 • ISSUE 570 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY 3 Final vote on pilots' collective agreement expected on Sunday YANNICK PACE LATE on Sunday evening it was announced that representatives from ALPA, the pilots' union, had reached a mutually satisfactory agreement with the Air Malta and the government over a col- lective agreement for the next five years. The agreement will now have to be approved by the union's mem- bers in a vote, which will take place on Sunday morning. The result of the vote will be known on Sunday evening. In comments to MaltaToday, union president James Fenech said he expected the agreement to be well received by the union's members. "We are happy with the deal and look forward to the next five years, and seeing the airline grow," he said. KURT SANSONE THE hospitals concession agreement with Vitals Global Healthcare was to span 30 years, according to the documents tabled in Parliament in October 2016. But doubts have now been cast on the length of the concession after parts of the contract that had been blanked out were leaked to the media. It was the Times of Malta that yester- day reported how St Luke's hospital was transferred on a 99-year lease to Vitals, while the government retained a buy- back option for the Karin Grech and Go- zo hospitals. PAGE 6 4 DID GOVERNMENT'S HOSPITALS DEAL CONCEAL A 99-YEAR CONCESSION? Syrian man's residence permit renewal woes preventing him from working I would like to receive the newspaper for a period of one year. MaltaToday on Sunday - €94.59 MaltaToday on Sunday and the Maltatoday Midweek - €149 MaltaToday Midweek - €59 I would like to receive both the MaltaToday on Sunday and the Maltatoday Midweek for a period of one year. 14 15 10 11 Newspaper post maltatoday today today SUNDAY • 14 JANUARY 2018 • ISSUE 949 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY Analysis of PQs confirms that commercial sensitivity cited more under Labour Worst flu season ever, doctors say See page 3 YOUR FIRST READ AND CLICK OF THE DAY WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT €1.75 INTERVIEW Joe Perici Calascione The FKNK president explains why he wants a fair deal for the hunters' lobby Sales agreement between Steward and Vitals entered in mid-December Teachers deceived over promised pay rise KURT SANSONE TEACHERS are fuming since most teaching grades will be getting less than half the promised pay increase suppos- edly agreed upon between their union and the government. After being kept in the dark over the details of the sectoral agreement signed on 21 December, educators were sur- prised to learn that the new allowances structure would only lead to an increase of between 11% and 12% over the five- year period. Billed as a historic agreement, details were revealed online by MaltaToday last Friday, leading to a barrage of dis- appointment in various online forums for teachers and learning support assis- tants. Educators who spoke to this newspa- per said they were deceived. They had been asked by their union to respond to an online consultation last December that asked them whether they agreed with the prop o s e d increases. SIGNS that Vitals Global Healthcare had serious issues in not raising the capital to fi- nance their operation was evi- denced by severe problems in paying suppliers. The agree- ment allowing Vitals a 30-year concession was heavily criti- cised in the media for the lack of transparency on the matter. MaltaToday can confirm that talks between the American health company and Vitals kicked off months ago and in mid-December both sides en- tered into a sales agreement. The two sides have appointed a committee to look into the pending liabilities and Stew- ard has agreed to settle these. The hospital concession agreements with Vitals Glob- al Healthcare to run the Gozo and Karin Grech hospitals would have cost taxpayers more than €40 million this year. It was announced with much pomp and enthusiasm by the Muscat administra- tion but the whole project has fallen f lat on its face just two years after it started. A de- bate on the transfer will take place on Wednesday. According to the financial estimates in Budget 2018, the government will be paying the private company €28.2 mil- lion for the running of the Gozo general hospital. 6 PAUL COCKS AS negotiations with ALPA, the pi- lots' union, remain at a standstill, sources close to the negotiations have told MaltaToday that time is running out for Air Malta to con- clude a deal. This newspaper is informed that Air Malta has offered its pilots a package that will see first officers' salaries increase by an average of €72,392 over a five-year period, while the average increase for a captain would be €105,600. Furthermore, arrears of €6,000 have been offered to each pilot for the expired period of the collective agreement between January 2016 and December 2017. The company has also guaranteed the immediate promotion of ten First Officers to Captains in 2018 and 2019, with a further 15 promotions planned over the subsequent three years. The company has stressed that the offer is its final one but it ap- pears that a significant segment of the pilots are still unwilling to fly longer hours in exchange for the increases offered by the company. Earlier this week, the government announced that it had set up a new company, which would also be seeking to obtain an Air Operating Licence (AOC). The government has said that the move was intended to protect Air Malta's lucrative airport slots, but the sources said it could also serve as a contingency plan in the eventuality that an agreement is not reached with Air Malta's pilots over their working conditions. "The minister had said that all collective agreements needed to be signed by the end of 2017 but realistically, the airline will start to face significant difficulties once the new scheduled routes planned for 2018 start," the sources said. Financing the airline would also be difficult unless all employee sec- tions agreed to a new collective agreement. PG 6 New airline, if pilot talks fail As Air Malta continues talks with its pilots over a new collective agreement, a new airline being set up by the government could provide it with a fall-back option, should an agreement remain elusive Vitals faced cash flow issues and could not pay suppliers with the SEE BACK PAGE WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT WEDNESDAY EDITION €1.00 Newspaper post PAGE 9 • Editorial WEDNESDAY • 17 JANUARY 2018 • ISSUE 570 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY 3 Final vote on pilots' collective agreement expected on Sunday YANNICK PACE LATE on Sunday evening it was announced that representatives from ALPA, the pilots' union, had reached a mutually satisfactory agreement with the Air Malta and the government over a col- lective agreement for the next five years. The agreement will now have to be approved by the union's mem- bers in a vote, which will take place on Sunday morning. The result of the vote will be known on Sunday evening. In comments to MaltaToday, union president James Fenech said he expected the agreement to be well received by the union's members. "We are happy with the deal and look forward to the next five years, and seeing the airline grow," he said. KURT SANSONE THE hospitals concession agreement with Vitals Global Healthcare was to span 30 years, according to the documents tabled in Parliament in October 2016. But doubts have now been cast on the length of the concession after parts of the contract that had been blanked out were leaked to the media. It was the Times of Malta that yester- day reported how St Luke's hospital was transferred on a 99-year lease to Vitals, while the government retained a buy- back option for the Karin Grech and Go- zo hospitals. PAGE 6 4 DID GOVERNMENT'S HOSPITALS DEAL CONCEAL A 99-YEAR CONCESSION? Syrian man's residence permit renewal woes preventing him from working THE revolutionary changes to European football planned for 2024 are likely to either be de- layed or scrapped. Uefa was proposing a Cham- pions League containing four groups of eight clubs, as opposed to the current eight groups of four, meaning 14 games, some of which could be played at week- ends. The proposals came after pres- sure from leagues below the "big five" - England, Spain, Italy, Ger- many and France. However, after months of talks, no overall consensus has been reached. Promotion and relegation from the Europa League and the new Europa League 2, a third club competition which starts in 2021, had also been suggested as a way of ensuring a rotation of clubs, to prevent the Champions League appearing to become a sealed competition. Ajax chief executive Edwin van der Sar has been among the most vocal demanding change, point- ing out the present qualification system could have led to his club having no European football at all after August, even though they came within seconds of getting to last season's Cham- pions League final before Lucas Moura's dramatic injury-time goal for Tottenham in Amster- dam. While the clubs remain com- mitted to change, the likelihood is that anything implemented by 2024 will be much less radical than initially envisaged. A far greater obstacle to imple- menting the proposed changes is concern among the major leagues, including the Premier League, that if Uefa's plan results in greater television revenue for their competitions, it will come at the expense of their domestic competitions. There is disagreement about this, but the view is widely held and puts clubs in those com- petitions at loggerheads with counterparts in the Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium and Scotland, amongst others, where big-name clubs are restricted in their abil- ity to progress because access to TV money from their own do- mestic competitions is strictly limited. They feel unless action is taken quickly, the gap will end up being so wide, it will never be bridged. Last season, the Premier League's bottom club, Hud- dersfield, earned £96.6m in TV money alone. In 2018, Scottish champions Celtic's overall in- come, including prize money from the Champions League, was £101.6m, a sum that was re- duced markedly in 2019 because of their failure to qualify for the group stages of Europe's elite competition. It is the lack of consensus which led to Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin cancelling the key tri- party discussions (involving Uefa, the leagues and the clubs) that were due to be held in Swit- zerland on Wednesday. These talks have been put back indefinitely, with chances being that they may not be held until the end of the season. Champions League changes planned for 2024 set to be delayed or scrapped Liverpool won the 2018-19 Champions League