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4 NEWS 03.11.2022 ETHICS is deemed to be as old as hu- manity itself but how has the digital arena impacted the relevance of ethics in today's workplace? is was the ques- tion that Bank of Valletta's Ethics team put forward to challenge its people and encourage them to reflect more about ethics during the month of October joining other organisations worldwide in celebrating Global Ethics Day 2022. Various initiatives were organ- ised and teams from across the Bank were invited to submit their entries on the theme of 'Empowering Ethics across the Bank'. As Ms Simone Di- mech from the Group's Ethics func- tion explained, the entries submitted underlined the range of perspectives and breath of interpretations to which ethics lend themselves. The best entry was awarded to the Project & Quality Management team within the Super- visory Reporting Unit demonstrated different aspects of ethics in action. The PMO Office within the Bank's Digital, Strategy & Transformation Team were the runners up. They put ethics by design into the limelight. The highlight event was an online panel discussion that took place on Global Ethics Day that falls on the 19th October. The panellist were probed to discuss their views about the relevance of ethics in the digital era we are living in. Speakers included Dr Gordon Cordina (BOV Chairman), Mr Kenneth Farrugia (CEO), Anatoli Grech (Group Chief Compliance Of- ficer), Mr Ludwig Mallia (Head Dig- ital Factory and Channels) and guest speaker Tony Micallef, who is a pro- fessional in Business Ethics. The ses- sion was moderated by Ms Laverne Calleja Pace from the Group's Ethics function. Micallef set the scene, highlighting the fact that ethics go beyond the law, asking the individual to choose to do the right thing. The impact of ethics on the bank's success Discussing the implications of ethics for the Bank's success, Kenneth Far- rugia explained: "Simply put, ethics is about doing what's right and fair. It is about the moral compass of every em- ployee and customer." He went on to explain that once eth- ics is embedded in the organisation, it will strengthen ties with customers and will also shape the way customers look at the bank. "Good ethics is our backbone, supporting customer rela- tionships built on trust." Speaking about the future of eth- ics within BOV, the bank's newly ap- pointed CEO emphasized the impor- tance of setting the tone particularly in relation to the digital paradigm. "As we evolve we must ensure that ethi- cal principles remain ingrained in our processes and operations. We need to use metrics to determine how chang- es we are implementing are impacting the trust of our customers. Ultimately it is about ownership." Likewise, Dr Cordina's intervention homed in on the importance of "en- couraging inclusiveness in the provi- sion of feedback, ideas and opinions." He explained that as a company, we need to regulate our behaviour and outcomes at the place of work, and this requires us to ground our decisions in ethical principles. "Having integrity as a Bank means that we are consistent and undivided in our behaviour." Dr Cordina also highlighted the im- portance of the BOV culture because, "our people are moulded in ethical principles and integrity through the BOV culture." Code of conduct and ethics Anatoli Grech reflected on the role of the Bank's Code of Conduct, saying, "The Bank's Code of Conduct & Eth- ics is key to the Bank's success, which is measured in terms of its sustaina- bility. The Code is not meant to be a fixed set of rules, but a document that provides general guidance." In this context, Grech explained that the suc- cess of the Code depends on the ex- tent to which every employee uses his best judgement, especially when faced with difficult work situations. In his intervention, Mallia sought to explain how ethics and digitalization dove-tail. "We need to provide cus- tomers with the optimal experience, without allowing for doubt about our ethical practices." He mentioned the use of data and digital algorithms that are sometimes used instead of human thinking. "Algorithms need to be nur- tured to ensure that no bias is built into them." To this effect, the Bank's Digital Team is looking into the setting up of a digital ethics committee to ensure continuous auditing and human su- pervision in process design, identify- ing issues at an early stage. Whilst thanking BOV employees for their keen participation in the initia- tives organised, and the teams from ethics and compliance for the profes- sionalism and dedication shown, Ken- neth Farrugia reiterated that, "Ethics are the backbone of sound working relationships amongst colleagues and with customers." He urged BOV employees to keep abreast with developments and guide- lines, whilst keeping the conversation about ethics alive. MARIANNA CALLEJA THE summer months brought Air Malta more than just restructuring and unend- ing uncertainty because Malta's national airline also transported 1.1 million pas- sengers in only five months. Air Malta's summer schedule ended on 31 October and the airline confirmed that it had achieved unprecedented lev- els of seat occupancy between June and October. e airline had a seat load fac- tor in access of 90% across the entire net- work. David Curmi, Air Malta executive chairman, said that throughout the sum- mer Air Malta lived up to its purpose of providing regular and stable connectivi- ty at all times. "We stood by our belief that it is better to give our customers confidence that they will travel as opposed to enforced flight cancellations leaving customers stranded with no alternative travel op- tions available," he said. He explained how despite the chal- lenges faced at certain key airports, Air Malta kept being one of the airlines that cancelled the lowest number of flights while keeping delays and disruption to the barest minimum. Chief Commercial Officer, Roy Kinne- ar, talked about plans to grow the air- line's network further and increase it's flying time in the upcoming two years. "Whilst existing routes will be retained, we are considering adding five new des- tinations... is means, increasing our weekly flights by over 20% to 155 flights," Kinnear said. Air Malta is passing through a painful restructuring process as government seeks the European Commission's green light to shore up the airline. In January, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana announced a voluntary em- ployee transfer scheme in a bid to cut Air Malta's workforce by half and save €15 million per year in wages. However, this process has stalled and government pushed back the deadline for Air Malta's employee transfer scheme to the end of the year, while also intro- ducing a generous voluntary redundancy and early retirement scheme. Meanwhile, talks are underway with pi- lots over a clause in their collective agree- ment that obliges the airline to continue paying them after they retire from active duty until pensionable age. Government wants to buy out this clause, which is costing the airline a lot of money. Pilots were excluded from the redun- dancy schemes since Air Malta had sacked 69 pilots in the summer of 2020 after talks with the Airline Pilots Asso- ciation broke down. e move came af- ter a protracted stand-off between the airline's management and pilots after the latter refused to accept a social wage of €1,200 per month in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. BOV puts ethics in the limelight Air Malta carried more than a million passengers last summer BOV CEO Kenneth Farrugia

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