Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/718140
WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT WEDNESDAY EDITION €1.00 Newspaper post PG 9 • Editorial WEDNESDAY • 24 AUGUST 2016 • ISSUE 483 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY Government mulls postponing Air Malta's downsizing Downsizing of ailing national airline could be postponed to after election as Air Malta moves to close negotiations with workers JURGEN BALZAN THE government is consider- ing postponing the downsizing of Air Malta to after the general election to mitigate any politi- cal fall-out from the deal which will see the carrier team up with Alitalia. After reaching an agreement with the unions representing pilots and cabin crew, Air Mal- ta is currently holding meetings with engineers in an effort to close nego- t i a t i o n s with all sections. Once an agreement is ironed out with the engineers, this would effectively mean that all sections have accepted cuts in staff complement. Nonetheless the government appears to be still unclear whether retirement schemes should come into effect at once or at a later date. There appears to be two schools of thought within gov- ernment ranks, one which fa- vours unleashing staff reduc- tion at once and one that argues that the retirement scheme will lead to resentment and a discontent among workers and should wait until after the elec- tion. Earlier this year, the govern- ment signed a memorandum of understanding with Alitalia, in a deal that will see the Ital- ian airline acquire a 49% share- holding in Air Malta. However, the details of the strate- gic partnership deal – includ- ing how many jobs must be shed – remain unknown. On Monday, the government announced that all Air Malta employees represented by the General Workers Union were guaranteed their jobs, as well as their take-home pay, even once the sale to Alitalia goes through. It is thought that although the airline has reached an agreement with the unions representing the majority of workers, and gave as- surances that no work- ers will be removed, the airline is offering early re- tirement schemes to a host of workers. Following protracted negotia- tions with the Union of Cabin Crew none of Air Malta's 250 cabin crew will be sacked, but all of them will be offered a strictly voluntary retirement scheme. MaltaToday revealed on Sun- day that the retirement scheme for pilots and cabin crew has been tagged at some €6 million. Those cabin crew who want to keep working under their cur- rent conditions will be offered a job at another government de- partment. This is not the first exercise of its kind for the national airline. In 2012, over 500 Air Malta employees applied for the com- pany's early retirement and vol- untary redundancy schemes. While most opted for an early retirement scheme, some 50 employees had applied for al- ternative jobs within the public sector. PN gearing up for general elections: candidates barred from hosting shows MIRIAM DALLI CONFIRMED candidates for the next general elections have been barred by the Nationalist Party from presenting or hosting TV and radio shows on the party me- dia, in a move that confirms the PN is already gearing up for the elections, which have to be held in 2018 at the latest. The PN has been approving its candidates for the elections since 2014, a year after the Labour Party was elected to power with a re- sounding majority. Now, the party administration has issued a direc- tive ordering approved candidates to stop presenting or hosting TV or radio shows on Net TV and Ra- dio 101. The decision was taken a year ago, with candidates informed that their programmes would be stopped after September 2016, a move which was described to the candidates as one that offers "a lev- el playing field" to all candidates. "The administration of the party has decided that all candidates for the next general election are to stop presenting programmes on its media, during the period prior to the general election," a spokesper- son for the PN told MaltaToday. Although the election could be held as late as June 2018, the spokesperson said: "The decision will be implemented as from the next winter schedule." Among those affected by this de- cision are party whip David Agius, lawyer and PN councillor Mat- thew Paris, lawyer Alessia Psaila Zammit, news anchor Graziella Schembri and radio host David Thake. Agius confirmed with MaltaTo- day that such a decision is taken before every general election, al- though he didn't confirm whether it usually happened so early in the day. He did however confirm that the decision was taken a year ago. "It is a longstanding decision of the party," Agius said. PAGE 7 David Thake will take his popular show to the digital platform as he attempts to win a seat in Parliament