Driving Miss Maria

Maria Micallef, Taghna Lkoll appointee to the chairmanship of Air Malta, has engaged a full-time chauffeur who was not already on the company payroll, thereby adding to Air Malta’s payroll costs.

Newspapers report (this scan is from today’s print edition of Times of Malta) that airline staff are fuming, because they’ve been asked to “make sacrifices” to help save the airline from bankruptcy.

They have a point. I wish to make another one. Micallef still works for the General Soft Drinks Company and remains on the payroll there. She is, in fact, just the chairman of the company – a part-time position – and not the (full-time) chief executive officer, who is Philip Micallef.

So when she’s working for the General Soft Drinks Company – bottlers of Coca Cola in Malta – does she leave her Air Malta car and chauffeur behind, or does she use her Air Malta car and chauffeur when working for Coca-Cola?