Work(?) on City Gate

I refer to the article Falling Stones Force "Safer" Passageway at City Gate (July 16). I must point out that the spokesman for the Ministry of Infrastructure is misinformed: The area where the lumps of concrete narrowly missed those students on Thursday afternoon was not cordoned off; they had not ducked under any tape, as there was none to duck under, as it is removed every day when the workmen leave.

As a trader at City Gate I have watched every day the farcical "work" that has been carried out at the gateway to the capital city. I arrive at City Gate at 8.30 a.m. when the workmen (for want of a better word) have set up their scaffold and then have their first break of the day. Then, one of them climbs the scaffold and does actually do some work, which is more than can be said for the rest of the group, whose sole reason for being there seems to be to shout encouragement and occasionally wheel the scaffold into another position, with the other workman still on it!

Their working day continues with another couple of breaks, then at 10 a.m., they pack down the scaffold and are gone by 10.30 a.m.! At the beginning of the job, seven weeks ago, they did actually "work" a little longer, maybe until 11.30, but then they obviously moved into summertime hours!

I have lived in Malta for two years and been told stories of these government workmen. I have dismissed them as being highly exaggerated but now I have seen it first hand. What really annoys me is that they seem to think that they are actually entitled to continue in this way.

Do these men receive their monthly pay cheque and feel like they've earned it? Do they have a conscience? I think not, because I spoke to one of them and he was blaming it on his superiors! Well, the entire government works department is to blame, but these men most of all. If they had taken a little pride in their job in the first place, those lumps of concrete would never have fallen.

Instead, Maltese government workers will continue to do shoddy work, few hours and receive an undeserved wage, and one day the concrete will not narrowly miss the students... Still, it won't be their fault.