The Malta Employers' Association and the Chamber of Commerce said today that businesses should have priority over households in compensation given for last week's long power cut.

The Malta Employers' Association said that since businesses in Malta pay the highest commercial energy rates in the EU, whereas household rates are close to the EU average, therefore businesses deserve priority in any compensation awarded for last week nation-wide blackout. 

The Sunday Times of Malta reported yesterday that businesses will not receive any of the compensation being proposed for those left more than 12 hours without electricity.

The financial package as proposed will only be given to domestic users, a government spokesman said.

The Malta Employers' Association said in a statement today it was calling on the government to compensate businesses who had suffered damages, including payment of wages due to the power cut.

Many companies had people turn up for work when they were unable to operate, the association said.

The Chamber of Commerce said it was surprised and disappointed at the news confirming that businesses would not benefit from any compensation for losses incurred as a result of last week’s blackout.

"Coherent with its stance that wealth must be created before it is distributed, the Malta Chamber has always argued that such incentives and initiatives should be provided to the business community first, and then extended to households. This same stance was taken by the Malta Chamber in the case of the reductions in energy tariffs. In the same way, the business community should be the first beneficiary of such compensation, as it is the same business community that creates the country’s wealth, which is then distributed by households."

The Chamber pointed out that in the case of last week’s outage, it was the business community, in a wide cross section of sectors, that suffered the greater blow. Losses suffered by businesses were considerable and included loss of business, by tourism, hospitality and logistics operators; loss of hours of productivity in the manufacturing sector as well as loss of considerable stock by importers, distributors and shop owners across the board.

"The Malta Chamber is therefore strongly of the view that businesses should rank before households on the scale of the planned compensation."