This is not true, government has replied, showing how allowances have been cut at senior management level as well.

Two basic forms of allowance are being considered here: travel allowances and qualification allowances.

The airline, like all airlines, has a lot of travel in its operations. It used to have quite generous allowances, apart from accommodation allowances.

It must be noted that Air Malta’s allowances were far more generous than those in government employment. The allowances have now been capped to Lm30 per day, both at chairman level and at lower levels.

Last year Lm380,000 was spent on such allowances.

The qualification allowance aimed to get people interested in further education, especially graduates to obtain a second degree.

But the allowance was given to anyone and everyone who got a degree or a diploma, even if the degree in question was a first degree and required for the job. Allowances should not be paid at that level, said government sources.

In the government service, for instance, a doctor does not get any extra allowance just because he is a doctor. He gets a further allowance when he goes for a second degree.

What is being proposed at the airline is therefore what is the current practice within the government system: no allowances for first degrees or qualification degrees, but allowances for second degrees.

Beside, while Lm400 was given for a first degree, Lm300 was given for a diploma, and everyone knows that it does not take much to get a diploma, said the sources.

This cost the airline Lm60,000 a year.