The Communist Party of Malta suspects there are ulterior motives behind the case of the Selmun Palace Hotel workers.

We are convinced that the Selmun Palace workers are being used as scapegoats to put psychological pressure on Air Malta employees, so that they will be forced to accept any kind of reform.

If so, these tactics do not augur well for an Industrial Democracy. Selmun Palace workers should be given outright an alternative employment and treated the same as the other Air Malta employees.

The Communist Party of Malta reiterates that the blame for the failure of Air Malta and its subsidiary companies should not be placed on the workers, but should be carried by all those who, because of their decisions, landed Air Malta in this crisis.

The purchase of RJ 70s, the disastrous investment in Greece, the privatisation of MIA and the introduction of low-cost airlines were all decisions that ultimately led to Air Malta’s failure.

The issue of low-cost airlines should be addressed by the government with haste. The fact that these airlines are competing directly with our national airline, are subsidised and employ workers with inferior conditions of work, put the national airline in an unfair disadvantage. The International Transport Workers’ Federation condemns this as social dumping.

Victor Degiovanni

Secretary

Communist Party of Malta