Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1480753
TRUTH IS OF NO COLOUR WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT SUNDAY • 2 OCTOBER 2022 • ISSUE 1986 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY maltatoday STATE OF THE POLICE MALTATODAY SURVEY: Are you ready to take the pain for Ukraine? PAGE 12 Life/death UKRAINE MAT TH E W VELLA AIR Malta's bill for severance packages is edging close to €60 million after a total of 345 em- ployees out of 572 applied for the government payouts. On 14 January, government announced it would create a voluntary employee trans- fer scheme in a bid to cut Air Malta's workforce by half and save €15 million per year in wages as part of a restructur- ing exercise. But while staff had been ear- marked for early termination in August, they will now leave the national airline by 31 De- cember, 2022. With the airline enjoying healthier summer loads as tourism picks up from the pandemic, more workers have had to be retained for service despite plans by the finance ministry to release 600 airline employees into the public ser- vice. Around €65 million had been included in the 2022 Budget for 'national airline restruc- turing assistance', which could reflect the expected assistance the European Commission in Brussels will allow by way of state aid. €1.95 Free buses win 6,700 new patrons in September JAMES DEBONO IN the month prior to the intro- duction of a free-of-charge bus service, the number of registra- tions for Tallinja cards have in- creased by 6,718 – from 407,689 on 31 August, to 414,407 on 28 September, the Transport Min- istry revealed in reply to a ques- tion by MaltaToday. The increase is being inter- preted as a positive indication of the popularity of the free bus service which commenced operations on Saturday. As from yesterday all persons using the personalised Tallinja card were not required to have credit on their card in order to use buses. Availing of free public trans- port requires commuters to tap their personalised Tallinja Card on the ticket machine next to the bus driver every time they board the bus. PAGE 4 FREE BUSES Air Malta redundancies could near €60 million for 345 employees PAGE 2 Finance minister Clyde Caruana Humanists say it is time for Malta to introduce living wills PAGE 9 Officers speak out about life in the blue PAGES 14-15