Palumbo shipyard workers walked into Castille yesterday morning calling on the Prime Minister to save their jobs and not to abandon them.
“Residents’ complaints are causing problems for us and for our employer, who has already cancelled two jobs, so that means less work for us too,” one of them told this newspaper as they demanded to meet Joseph Muscat.
“We all have families and all we are asking for is to be allowed to work.”
The workers gathered at Castille before heading down to the law courts to attend a criminal case instituted by residents against the shipyard and the captain of a ship over excessive noise claimed to be emanating from the yard.
Some of the workers were wearing identification tags showing they were Labour counting agents during the last general election.
They said they felt nothing was being done to protect their livelihood. All they wanted was Dr Muscat’s intervention in their bid to save their jobs.
Walking into the customer care section of the Prime Minister’s office, they were informed that Dr Muscat was not there so representatives met a member of his secretariat, Sandro Craus.
Following a brief meeting during which the workers voiced their concerns, they were told they would be contacted in due course.
An association of Senglea residents have complained about the racket and the dirt coming from the yards, particularly at night, claiming the noise at night is unbearable and their health is in jeopardy.
Residents’ complaints are causing problems for us and for our employer, who has already cancelled two jobs
Their case is against Palumbo and the captain of the vessel Hamad.
In court, Magistrate Aaron Bugeja heard conflicting interpretations of the noise level readings taken by a court-appointed expert at Senglea.
Some of the readings were taken in the bedrooms of residences whose owners have complained of an incessant humming noise coming from the yard.
The readings showed that with the window open, the noise level exceeded the World Health Organisation threshold of 30 decibels, according to the expert, Joseph Agius, a former dean at the engineering department.
On the witness stand, Prof. Agius said the bedroom readings reached 40.5 decibels with the window open and 30.1 decibels when the windows were closed.
The shipyard owners disagreed with the expert’s interpretation, insisting the WHO night-time parameter was 40 decibels.
Prof. Agius said his inspections were carried out around Senglea between 11.30pm on Tuesday night and 3am yesterday morning.
The highest levels were recorded near the Gardjola watchtower but he noted there was also noise being generated from a yacht outside the shipyard at Boiler Wharf.
The two main sources of noise were the diesel generators inside a tugboat and the much larger diesel generator of the merchant vessel Argentina Grande, which was further away from the residents in Dock 6.
The humming noise about which the residents had complained was perfectly compatible with that coming from a diesel engine inside a generator.
However, he noted that the one inside the tugboat was much smaller than the one powering the Argentina Grande.
The case continues tomorrow.