The warning issued by the European Commission to the Maltese government with regard to the possible redeployment of Air Malta employees as part of the restructuring process somewhat raises more questions than the statement itself answers. The case in point in this issue is whether the assistance that might be provided by government to Air Malta employees who are made redundant qualifies as state aid, and therefore could be considered as counting towards the final amount of financial assistance given to the national airline to survive.

The number of employees who might be made redundant still has to be officially established, but the persistent figure revolves around the 500 mark. The fact that employees know that so many will be let-go but the actual persons who will be asked to leave their employment still have to be identified obviously creates a tense situation. The present situation could also potentially lead to employees having a laissez-faire attitude as they expect the worst to happen. This is a highly unfortunate situation which could have been handled better, given that the company had been facing significant losses for a number of years without the authorities ever intervening effectively to save the company.

At this stage, the warning sounded by the European Commissioner responsible for Competition, in a reply to a letter sent by former Air Malta Chairman and now Labour Member of the European Parliament, Louis Grech, requires further clarification. The country is practically none the wiser knowing that redundant employees offered alternative employment with government could potentially jeopardise the saving of the national airline.

Another argument which could be brought into the equation is that redundant employees should not be offered alternative employment with the civil service or any government agency. In that case, the country will see its register for people registering for work swell by another 500 people overnight. However, the country is also obliged to provide benefits and assistance to these people as is customary in all European countries. Thus, the country is potentially looking at a situation where employees are made redundant to save the airline when the possibility exists of shifting their services to another government owned company or department.

The question that has to be answered in this case is the preference between the lesser of two evils. The answer most probably would be that employees should be redeployed, perhaps even retrained to learn new skills, to utilise their services in other areas where and as required. Surely the European Commission still believes in promoting life-long learning, human rights and the right to work,rather than the other alternative that would see employees given the double blow of being made redundant from the national airline and not offered employment to fill vacancies that actually exist.

The Air Malta saga seems bound to continue evolving as the feeble attempts in the past to control the expenditure of the airline failed to achieve the desired results and the losses incurred became further compounded by various other factors that impacted on the bottom line of the company. Government’s intention to save the national airline is the only note of consolation so far.