Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1215405
27.02.2020 3 NEWS FROM PAGE 1 An agreement reached on Tuesday night will see a new procedure being adopted for ships entering the Birzebbuga port. "e new procedure has been implemented and everything is back to normal. e arrange- ment was endorsed by the health authorities and follows established procedure," Monte- bello said. e issue emerged after Mal- ta's port workers requested that ships be certified as being safe by a doctor in light of the vi- rus having spread in Italy and reached Sicily. Every ship entering port has to have a declaration from its captain which confirm that there is no contagion on board. e captain's declaration leads to a free pratique, where clear- ance is granted in terms of the ship not carrying disease. However, port workers insist- ed that there be an additional verification by a medical pro- fessional at the port that ships crews aren't sick. Malta Dockers Union pres- ident Ryan Fava confirmed that an agreement had been reached with the Freeport. He said medics from a private company would be board- ing the ship and scanning the crew's temperatures. "e medic will also sign the captain declaration, to put minds at rest that at the mo- ment the ship's crew appear to be free of disease," Fava said. "As a union, our primary in- terest is not to cause any dis- ruptions to the industry but to safeguard the interest of port workers, our members. e situation escalated alarmingly due to the spread of the virus in Italy in the past four days," he said, noting that port work- ers were alarmed that ships coming from Northern Italy, notably Genoa, could have sea farers on board who could be carrying the corona virus. "e port workers remarked that Malta airport, catamaran and cruise liner passengers would be scanned on arrival to Malta, cargo ships would not and we would have to depend on the captain's declaration that nobody is sick," he high- lighted. "Together with the indus- try and authorities we wanted to find a system to put port workers' mind at rest that crew members, sea farers and driv- ers coming on the ships are be- ing screened in order to control the situation more." Following the agreement reached for ships' crew to be checked by medics, Fava said that efforts were being made to extend the arrangement to all terminals, with the main one being the Valletta Gateway Terminal which welcomes roll- on/roll-off (RORO) vessels. "I trust that we will reach an agreement to have this com- mon system across the board," he added. 'We hope not to have any more problems' - industry source A source from Tirrenia, one of the major cargo shipping companies operating in Mal- ta, told this newspaper that he hoped that, come ursday morning - when the Alf Pollak, an Italian-registered RORO ship, is due to enter the Free- port - there would not be any more disruptions. He recounted that last Mon- day, port workers had refused to haul cargo from the ships, but that the situation had been resolved once a port health doctor boarded the ship and signed a document confirming the vessel was contagion-free. e source said that, although around a week ago they had been told that all crew coming aboard cargo ships would be checked, there still don't ap- pear to be any scanner in place at the Freeport. It now hinged on port work- ers whether to accept to haul cargo, he said. "I hope things don't take a hit because of this issue. We hope for the best and that we will have a normal morning on ursday," he said. "Leaving a ship at a standstill is a loss of revenue, we cannot afford to leave ships idle," the source added. Fahrenheit Freight Forwarders director Sandro Mallia told Busi- nessToday that some of their road freight drivers had been reporting that some factories in Italy from where they normally collected goods were closed in certain zones of the country. "Apart from that, we haven't had any other issues, at least till now," he said. Malta Chamber of Commerce requests urgent discussions with government e Malta Chamber of Com- merce said that it had actively been involved in seeking solu- tions in relation to delays in discharging of two vessels at the port. It said, however, that it was positive that the solu- tions found in these cases, will remain fruitful to avoid such instances in the future." e Chamber said it was monitoring the general sit- uation concerning the effect on Maltese businesses of the global coronavirus outbreak and was keeping its members informed. It added that it had "asked the government to hold urgent consultations on areas affect- ing businesses and industrial relations related the Covid-19/ Coronavirus situation." "e Malta Chamber is ada- mant that while public health and safety are the utmost pri- ority, this does not result in in- creased costs for employers," it added. "e Malta Chamber is moni- toring the situation closely and keeping its members informed with the relevant developments to the situation accordingly. e Chamber has asked Gov- ernment to hold urgent consul- tations on areas affecting busi- nesses and industrial relations related the Covid-19/Coro- navirus situation. e Malta Chamber is adamant that while public health and safety are the utmost priority, this does not result in increased costs for employers. Earlier this week, the Cham- ber was actively involved in seeking solutions in relation to delays in discharging of two vessels, which arose at the har- bour. e Chamber is positive that the solutions found in these cases, will remain fruitful to avoid such instances in the future." In a similar vein, Malta Chambers of SMEs CEO Ab- igail Mamo told this newspa- per that it was important that the arrangement reached at the port was kept up to avoid any more hiccups. She noted that, to date, no issue of supply shortages had been brought to the union's attention by its members. In a statement, moreover, the SMEs Chambers said that in the past weeks and days it had received increasing numbers of queries from its members about the coronavirus. "Our members have also re- ported that customers have increased their shopping pat- terns in view of what is hap- pening in Italy. As a Chamber of SMEs and from the infor- mation available to us we must underline that there is no cause for alarm, everyone should go about their life normally, tak- ing the simple precautionary measures already made public," the Malta Chamber of SMEs said. "In addition to this it is evi- dent that the public is calling for all the necessary preparato- ry plans in terms of infrastruc- ture and logistics as soon as possible. is is something that our members also want to see in order to avoid unnecessary delays and time wastage. Mal- ta should be prepared for a worst-case scenario situation and the plans should be public- ly announced to put everyone's mind at rest," it highlighted. It went on to appeal for more awareness that the coronavirus has caused disruption on an in- ternational trade level. "Most of the world's goods and mate- rials come from China. Many goods that are imported from Europe still originate in Chi- na. China has suffered great disruption with some factories being closed until the worse is over and the country is not in a normal functioning state. is will inevitably cause delays for most imports to reach Malta," the Malta Chamber of SMEs underlined. "It is therefore advisable for businesses to take this into consideration and to try and plan and adjust their work- flows accordingly to mitigate the impact. Businesses should also make their clients aware for order delays they are likely to experience. is will avoid unnecessary tensions at a later stage," it said. LIDL coy about security of supply Given the evident increase in bulk buying by Maltese shop- pers, this newspaper asked dis- count supermarket giant LIDL whether they could guarantee that goods which have been snatched off their shelves could be replaced and that there was a security of supply. Photos doing the round in the press and social media have shown empty shelves at super- markets, with several shoppers rushing to buy large quantities of essentials such as toilet pa- per and long-life milk. LIDL, however, limited its comments to saying that their shops were always resupplied with products. Medics will board cargo ships to confirm they are contagion-free