Transport strike has cost economy 'tens of millions'

The public transport strike and the ensuing incidents have cost the economy "tens of millions" of euros, according to Malta Employers' Association director general Joseph Farrugia.

Traffic jams built up, delays were the order of the day, and businesses were drained of shoppers as public transport drivers resorted to illegal methods, ran amok and intimidated passers-by during the strike.

Several organisations have sought damages through the courts, with building firms saying that the transport strike cost them over €1 million a day.With the four-day strike hitting practically all sectors of the economy, Mr Farrugia said it was high time for an authority to properly cost such a strike to try and avoid a repeat.

Nevertheless, Mr Farrugia said he had estimated the cost at tens of millions because of both the direct and indirect harm caused by drivers' actions.

"Everybody was affected because of this strike - manufacturing, retailing, tourism, you name it," he said yesterday.

He described the action as an over-reaction by the Public Transport Federation, which went on the warpath from the outset and allowed the situation to degenerate into a "free for all".

In a statement last Wednesday, the MEA said the way the transport operators had escalated the strike was a "shameful and flagrant abuse of the right to industrial action".

By blocking traffic and disrupting emergency transport, using illegal methods and violence, the operators had deprived many employees from their fundamental right to go to work.

Malta Tourism Authority chief executive Josef Formosa Gauci said that emergency marketing campaigns would probably have to be carried out in the core markets by the MTA and Air Malta, among others, to make up for the past few days.

"You've got certain real costs which had to be incurred in terms of emergency work, for instance. You've got the inconvenience, which is also difficult to cost," he said.

The all-important travel sector was probably the biggest loser. Air Malta said that its bookings dropped by around 50 percent during the second and third day of the strike. During the strike, the national airline even had to assist a number of passengers booked on low-cost and other airlines who missed their flights due to the blockades on the roads.

Mr Formosa Gauci said: "I wouldn't want to speculate on a figure (of losses to the economy) to be honest.

Are we going into the losses sustained in the construction industry? Do we know many people didn't manage to get to work? It's very difficult to come up with a figure but it's substantial. Had it gone on for another couple of days we would have had serious problems.

"Even for the people who were on holiday here... you put up with one or two days by the pool but not more than that... We had incoming agents who were cancelling all the excursions from their cruise liners.

That too is a substantial loss of revenue.

"We are not concentrating on coming up with an actual figure of the losses, we're concentrating more on the marketing we need to do to counter the damage and see what it actually cost us directly to come up with an emergency service."

Malta Chamber of Medium and Small Enterprises - GRTU Vince Farrugia said that retailers, particularly in Valletta and Sliema, had been hit hard by the strike.

The chamber has no legal status to bring forward a claim for compensation on behalf of its members, which means that if members feel they should seek compensation they would do so on an individual basis.