'Obscene': employers outraged by Air Malta severance offers

Severance packages being offered to Air Malta employees could cost taxpayers €50 million, the Malta Employers Association said on Friday, one day after airline workers voted in favour of the deals. 

The MEA described the severance packages as “the most obscene in Malta’s industrial relations history” and noted that the figures being mentioned could cost the country €50 million if all 350 Air Malta workers represented by the General Workers' Union opted for the deal. 

It accused the government of squandering taxpayers’ money to resolve a mess of its own making.

“Companies and employees cannot take the government’s appeal for tax compliance seriously when it is distributing millions of their taxes to a privileged few, with such handouts amounting to more than an average worker saves in his or her lifetime," the MEA said. 

Air Malta is currently being restructured to dramatically reduce its headcount and overheads.

The government initially said that around half of the airline's workers would be transferred to other government entities at equal pay and conditions. But workers' high salaries has made it hard to shift them, and on Thursday it emerged that workers would now also be...