PKM deplores Ryanair’s comments

The Communist Party of Malta deplores the comments made the representatives of Ryanair and considers this as interference. The Ernst & Young report gives a clear picture that the low cost airlines are direct competitors with our National Air line. This situation is creating an unfair competition, and is a direct threat to the sustainability of Air Malta. The fact that low cost airlines across Europe are being subsidised, gives these companies an unfair advantage in the civil aviation market.

The Communist Party expresses solidarity with all workers at Air Malta who are the victims of past administrative errors which were not of their own making. The Party understands fully the Pilots Unions ‘ALPA’ where they are showing concern over the same report as it lacks detailed information on the wrong measures taken over the years which are affecting workers today. Most of the work that Air Malta employees used to do was outsourced to private companies. This has created a situation where many workers are seen as surplus to the company.

The Communist Party of Malta condemns the Government's policy which was always in favour of privatisation. This had the effect of workers losing their jobs and others suffering from inferior working conditions. Several public companies that had been privatised are employing new workers on atypical job contracts which results in precarious jobs. A typical example is several workers at GO and Malta Post PLC who are being employed on atypical job contracts and others face the thread of becoming redundant.