Meridiana (Olbia) management has signed an agreement with the airline's trade unions guaranteeing the carrier's 1,634 employees an additional twelve months of government benefits while staving off impending lay-offs.
The Italian Ministry of Economic Development, which facilitated the deal, said the agreement would allow Meridiana administration staff, pilots, and flight attendants as well as those working at its Olbia MRO base, to remain at their jobs while allowing the carrier to continue with its restructuring programme.
The agreement is a follow-up to an interim agreement signed in December in which the airline offered staff a EUR15,000 incentive to those who chose voluntary redundancy packages by the end of last year.
The loss-making carrier embarked on a restructuring programme in 2013 among whose objectives are the retirement of its Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) fleet, the termination of loss-making routes, and the reduction of its workforce to a size commensurate to its scale of operations.
