Lufthansa Technik Malta has concluded two milestone collective agreements with the Association of Airline Engineers (Malta) known also as AAE and Union Haddiema Maghqudin, which represent the company’s employees. The conclusion of the two collective agreements was a critical precondition to the investment project negotiated between Lufthansa Technik Malta and the Malta government.

A key issue in the discussions was the need of a longer duration for the agreements. Both collective agreements expire on 31 December 2012.

The agreements introduce a flexible working hour model that ranges between 32 and 48 hours subject to the company’s exigencies and pre-advice to employees. Due to the seasonality experienced in this industry, a banking of hours system that has a plus and minus hours threshold has been introduced to provide more flexibility to the company.

The AAE agreement was signed by the chairman of the LTM-AAE Group Committee Kevin Mallia, the secretary Mark Spiteri, as well as the other two committee members of the Lufthansa Technik Malta Group Committee, in the presence of the AAE president and vice president, Stefan Grech and Ing. Adrian Rizzo, respectively. Secretary general Gejtu Vella, Manufacturing and Services Section secretary Nicholas Baldacchino, as well as group committee members signed the UHM agreement.

On the company’s side, both agreements were signed by Dr Thomas Stueger, director of Lufthansa Technik Malta and board member on the Lufthansa Executive Board, CEO Louis Giordi-maina and Human Resources manager Antoinette Caruana.

While AAE negotiated on behalf of certifying staff and graduate engineers, UHM represented support staff, technical and production staff, materials and logistics employees and administration.