Niyamath Parveez

Malta is an extremely popular holiday destination with an illustrious history behind it which encourages many people to come and visit the nation. In addition to this, there are a multitude of holiday maker attractions with fantastic beaches and glorious sunshine giving further reasons to bring people to the country. In addition to this, public awareness of the country has risen dramatically in the United Kingdom due to the fact that Air Malta Sponsor Sheffield united, a soccer club widely known throughout the land. The advertising benefits of sponsoring this club have caused many more people to think of Malta as a possible destination and to fly Air Malta in getting there.

However, not everything is rosy for the company, even with this wide exposure, as the current economic downfall has affected them much like it has affected so many other companies around the world. The recession in the past few years has been extremely damaging, causing many firms to go bust and leaving even more changing their policies and attitudes to work in order to save money and prolong the business. One way for firms to reduce their labor costs but still maintain a quality of service is through outsourcing their work to a provider that is able to work for a lower fee.

However, Air Malta are looking into outsourcing for another major reason and one that can be currently overlooked when it comes to outsourcing. An airline company needs to have staffs that are capable of working all around the clock, which can put a great strain on resources. It can be difficult to find staffs that are willing to work all of these hours or on a specific route without paying additional money to the staff for doing so. This can raise the cost of labor for the company which is obviously something that they are trying to avoid. Therefore, using an outsourcing supplier to provide the staff who will work any hour of the day ensures that the costs are lower and deadlines and targets can be met.

Air Malta are not the first company to face these problems, nor will they be the last and the inevitable solution that companies tend to turn towards revolves around redundancies for their current staff. Although this may lead to a bad public relations issue for the company involved, the cost saving is likely to be of enough benefit for them to continue their plans to push through the redundancies.

As always, news of a potential round of redundancies has been met with criticism and unpleasantness from the trade unions involved, which should come as no surprise. Trade unions exist to work for their member’s rights and behalf, so there is likely to be a disagreement between all parties. A trade union is unlikely to see the fact that a reduced labor cost through outsourcing work is what the firm is really after and that the number of people being made redundant is unfortunate. As discussions continue with regards Air Malta, expect to see both parties fighting harder for their rights.