Workers should not suffer financially or have their leave reduced because they arrived late for work on Friday when Malta was gridlocked following a sudden downpour, a union boss said.

Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin general secretary Josef Vella warned there would be “trouble” if employers thought of penalising workers who were caught in traffic for hours.

The first autumn storm hit between Thursday night and Friday morning, badly affecting various parts of the island usually prone to flooding, including Birkirkara, Msida and some areas in Marsa.

Rescuers were required to assist motorists stranded in flooded roads. The situation was so bad it forced motorists to change their usual routes to work or school, causing heavy traffic.

Tailbacks stretched across the entire island, leaving frustrated drivers sitting in their vehicles, with the engine switched off, for hours. There were people who reported spending up to three hours in their stationary cars.

“We should not play the blame game here. Workers should not suffer the consequences of several years of bad planning that led to the situation we have on our roads today. Workers should not bear the brunt of the traffic problems on the island,” Mr Vella said when contacted.

We should not play the blame game here

He said employers would not recoup lost productivity if they deducted salaries or their workers’ annual vacation leave entitlement.

Despite lost productivity, disrupted production lines and loss of man hours, it would be difficult to quantify how much the congestion cost employers, said Joe Farrugia, director general of the Malta Employers Association.

“We have had reports of totally disrupted production lines and production processes that had to be postponed because workers were stuck in traffic.

“There was chaos. There were workers who arrived three hours late. All this was the result of a downpour that was not even that extraordinary,” he told the Times of Malta.

Mr Farrugia said the government needed to address the situation “urgently”, as it was affecting the country’s competitiveness.

“The government promised to find a solution to this but we are still waiting for it to deliver on its promise.

“Admittedly, it is not a one-solution problem but one which has to be addressed from its several facets,” he said.