GRTU insists on compensation, ministry says claim is 'nonsensical'

The GRTU insisted again this evening that shop owners should be compensated for loss of business stemming from infrastructural works in Valletta which, it said, had been imposed without proper consultation and planning with the businesses concerned.

The chamber said it was in favour of embellishment, but it was critical of the manner how the works were being carried out since this was endangering the livelihood of the shop owners. Seriousness demanded that those who caused losses should compensate for those losses.

The chamber said the Valletta works should have been planned with the shop owners in a way that would have enabled the latter to plan, such as by scheduling the leave of their employees to coincide with the works.

However in this case there had been imposition and the GRTU had been reduced to pleading to be told about the works.

The GRTU said Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt, in a statement earlier today had mentioned a letter sent to his ministry by the GRTU's lawyer, but he had not mentioned the fact that it referred only to St John Street. Neither had he said that the shop owners there had had to complain through their lawyer that unless complaints about the street were remedied, they would take legal action.

The GRTU insisted that shopowners had to be compensated for their losses. It called on the government to hold talks how the situation could be remedied.

Earlier, the Infrastructure Ministry said that the notion that shop-owners in Valletta should be compensated for infrastructural works currently in hand was 'nonsensical'.

GRTU Director-General Vince Farrugia revealed the request for compensation yesterday.

The ministry said the GRTU was contradicting itself. While Vince Farrugia was demanding compensation, Dr Jan-Karl Farrugia in a letter sent to the ministry on behalf of the same GRTU said last week that: "we take the opportunity to thank you for the rapid progress and little inconvenience that the project has caused to the shop community".

The ministry said the paving of the pedestrian areas of Valletta and the upgrading of its entrance, were projects that had long been required by all, first and foremost by the shop owners represented by the GRTU. The current works represented an unprecedented standard of provision for pedestrian access, disruption minimisation and site management. But there was no construction project that was immune from any form of inconvenience.

"The GRTU, or at least its Director General, does not seem to be aware that before and throughout the implementation of the embellishment works, the GRTU and the shop owners were fully consulted and informed through meetings, direct mailings and advertising. Moreover, before the start of works on each phase (or street), at least one meeting was held on site with the GRTU, many times in the presence of the shop owners themselves," the ministry added.

It said that in some areas, such as South Street, the works were ahead of schedule. The shop owners themselves seemed to appreciate this, as the GRTU letter by Dr Jan Karl Farrugia of last week demonstrated.

As to the timing of the works, the ministry said the project actually started in February, which according to shop owners was a good month for works. It was paused for festivities important to shop owners and on their explicit request, such as Mothers' day and Easter. The work was being intensified in summer because of various practical reasons, including the recess of Parliament, the reduced workload of the law courts and other entities, the reduced operating hours of several establishments including commercial ones as well as the request by shop owners to have works completed well before Christmas.

Should works stop in Summer, they would have to go on into the Christmas period, which was a far more sensitive period for shop owners.

"The notion that shop-owners should be ‘compensated' because of works to upgrade the streets leading to their front door is nonsensical. The GRTU seems to suggest that no upgrading works should ever occur in case they cause inconvenience to shop owners. But, as their criticism before the works started so loudly claimed, the shopping business cannot thrive in a city which is allowed to degenerate and which is starved of the investment it needs to be upgraded," the ministry said.

"In place of the ‘compensation' the GRTU is claiming, the government is spending over €2 million in the current phase alone of upgrading the paving of the main shopping streets of Valletta. This apart from portions that have recently been completed (like Merchants Street and St John Square) that have proven a thriving success for the retail operators there, as well as the major projects at the entrance to the City."

See also

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100713/local/valletta-works-grtu-wants-compensation-for-businesses