A new association for Gozitan workers in Malta is seeking to find solutions to the daily travails of employees making the crossing between the two islands.
Ronald Sultana, the acting vice president of the newly formed Association of Gozitan Employees in Malta (AGEM), told the Times of Malta that Gozitan employees wasted 35 days a year commuting between the two islands on a daily basis.
Mr Sultana says a permanent link is only part of the solution to the daily problems faced by Gozitan workers.
He said if the tunnel link wereto depart from Mġarr and land in the north of Malta, little would have been solved for Gozitans commuting to Malta on a daily basis.
More innovative means of transport which would also benefit the Maltese should also be considered, Mr Sultana said.
Apart from wasted time, Mr Sultana said Gozitans incurred significant travelling expenses. He said Gozitans making use of a shuttle bus from Ċirkewwa to their workplaces forked out around €70 to €90 for the service alone.
Gozitans did not feel successive income tax cuts: the money went to fund travel expenses for the daily commute
Research done by the association showed that teleworking would be one viable solution for Gozitan workers, Mr Sultana said. This would actually be an investment, he said, as with the travelling times to work eliminated, workers could spend more time on their job.
Another possible solution was increasing Gozitan commuters’ vacation leave by five per cent, to offer them an incentive to continue pursuing their careers in Malta.
He pointed out that the government’s electoral manifesto recognised Gozo’s double insularity, and AGEM would seek to raise awareness about the problem.
Over 2,500 Gozitans commuted to Malta daily, with the early morning ferries often packed to the brim
AGEM’s president, Sean Zammit, lamented that successive income tax cuts had not been felt by Gozitans, as the extra money had gone to fund travel expenses for their daily commutes to Malta.
Mr Zammit said Gozitans also faced parking problems when catching the ferry from Mġarr.
He augured that these problems would soon be solved by a park-and-ride system recently announced by the Gozo Ministry.
Mr Zammit said the association was willing to listen to its members and work hand-in-hand with the relevant authorities to try solve the commuters’ problems.
He said over 2,500 Gozitans commuted to Malta daily, with the early morning ferries often packed to the brim.
The AGEM president said the association’s main aim was to improve the rights and working conditions of Gozitan workers in order to put them on an equal footing with their Maltese colleagues.