Finance Minister Clyde Caruana is refusing to state whether Air Malta employees who are on a definite contract will also be given a permanent job with the government through the so-called ‘voluntary transfer scheme’.

Sources close to the national airline told The Shift that Labour propagandist Karl Stagno Navarra is being touted to be one of the beneficiaries of the ad hoc scheme, and be put permanently on the public payroll.

Stagno Navarra was employed at the national airline in 2019 by disgraced Minister Konrad Mizzi and given a three-year definite contract as Head of PR and Corporate Social Responsibility on a package of almost €50,000 a year. However, Stagno Navarra’s contract stipulates that at the end of its term, which happens to be in a few months’ time, his contract will end.

Through a new scheme announced by Minister Caruana, in the latest attempt to save the bankrupt national airline, the government is to shave off some 600 employees from its payroll and instead put them permanently on the government’s payroll as public employees, burdening taxpayers by a further €15 million a year.

Only those who are on the permanent books of the airline are entitled to such a scheme. The others, on a definite contract, cease to be employed once their contracted term is over.

Asked to state whether Air Malta employees on a definite contract will also be allowed to apply for the ‘voluntary scheme’, the finance minister refused to answer.

The constitution prohibits permanent employment without proper process.

Air Malta union representatives who spoke to The Shift said that while every effort is being made by the government to transfer Stagno Navarra to a permanent government job keeping the same package, this would be illegal.

“Like all contracted employees, and he’s not the only one, Stagno Navarra is not considered as a permanent Air Malta employee and his time at the company is time-barred. If Stagno Navarra is given a permanent government job, then the minister will also have to do the same with other high-ranking officials, who are also on a definite contract in top managerial positions,” the sources said.

The Shift is informed that union representatives have already warned Air Malta that they will not allow discrimination through the ‘voluntary transfer scheme’.

Stagno Navarra, who conducts a daily propaganda show on Labour TV, is a known fraudster who switched to Labour shortly after being booted out of his job at the Nationalist Party.

Stagno Navarra is rarely seen at his Air Malta office.