Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1221489
4 Employers: State must pay quarantine leave THE Malta Chamber of Com- merce welcomed the measures, but said it expected bolder de- cisions from the government to "indicate clearly when it is going to dig into the country's reserves to make good for the hardships companies are cur- rently facing and enduring through no fault of theirs." "All this must be put in the context of the government's decision to declare quaran- tine leave as equivalent to 'ju- ry leave' by means of a legal notice, and this without any consultation, which means it has to be paid by businesses. As The Malta Chamber has argued several times already, this decision is unacceptable and will have serious negative effects on our businesses and the economy at large." CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The prime minister said the government was postponing the payment of provisional tax, VAT, social security contribu- tions (national insurance) for both self-employed and em- ployers, for March and April. Companies who invested in teleworking schemes will also be granted refunds on their in- vestments. Government will also accel- erate VAT refund payments to businesses. "These are strong measures that will have a pos- itive impact on businesses to safeguard jobs. They're not easy measures, but our econo- my is resilient, and our financ- es are stable. This government has always been prepared for this rainy day. It is indeed with us," Abela said. Abela said the government had spoken to stakeholders, the Chamber of Commerce, SMEs, the Malta Hotels and Restau- rants Association and other associations. The economic package was mainly geared to businesses in tourism and hos- pitality, recreational services, transparent, and some indus- tries in manufacturing. But Abela also said his ex- perts' advice so far is not to go for total lockdown. "They have given us simple reasons: this would be a house arrest except for the acquisition of food and medicinals… for weeks on end. It could be a populist measure, but also a dangerous one. We have taken drastic measures, for example, by laying down a 14 days' quarantine for all travellers, so as not to arrive to this most extreme measure. It would be a most inconvenient measure. Indeed it has been said that it would be ill-advised for us. "We are discussing with our public health experts. If that measure will be needed, we will do it. But the numbers right [Covid-19 infections] now show that we are moving in the right direction." He said no lockdown would prevent Malta from having zero cases of infections. "We will have a number of infec- tions, it is inevitable. What we are trying to avoid is a massive spike in these cases, so that the health authorities are not over-burdened at one go…. "We will be making the best of efforts to supervise man- datory quarantine. This is not the time to take things lightly. Those who are subject to quar- antine must take this seriously. Even those who are not obliged because they were abroad a few days before the new rules set in, they should still do a 14-day quarantine period. This is my appeal. "The minute the public health superintendence tells us 'we need a lockdown', that is what we will do." Abela once again appealed for calm. "The situation is under control. I appeal for calm, and courage from our business- es. We have health authorities who know what they are doing. They make this country proud with their preparedness." In a reaction, the Medical As- sociation of Malta said Abela had confirmed that lockdown will be definitely necessary when there is documented sus- tained local transmission. "The statement that the 'suf- fering from a lockdown will be much bigger than that caused by coronavirus' seems to be in direct contradiction to his de- clared intention to introduce it at more troubled times. Un- doubtedly it will be a necessary sacrifice. This is a new disease and there is no textbook solu- tion, but we must learn from other countries' mistakes," MAM president Martin Balzan said. "The problem with waiting for documentation of local per- son-to-person transmission is that there is a significant time- lag between infection with the virus, and clinical illness. This means that a lockdown would then come into effect only af- ter there was uncontrollable spread, with potentially devas- tating consequences on human health. This is more probable in a small and densely populat- ed country like ours. "Notwithstanding, it is clear that in China, Italy, and now Spain that half-measures have been proven to be complete- ly ineffective, and all three governments have resorted to drastic measures, including a state of emergency in Spain. In China a full lockdown has been very effective to the extent that the epidemic was rapidly terminated by this measure, where all others had failed." Finance minister Edward Sci- cluna said Malta's economic growth will be impacted upon by the coronavirus shock. He said it was still too early to say whether this could lead to a recession. "Malta starts from such strong growth, with its surplus, that any impact from coronavirus is buttressed by this cushion." He said Malta will be intro- ducing a mini-budget to take stock of the coronavirus im- pact. Scicluna said he met the Malta Bankers Association, who said they had "promised" to do everything they can to assist businesses on cash-flow problems for the next months. Scicluna said he will keep mon- itoring the situation, to see whether another package of measures will be required. maltatoday | SUNDAY • 15 MARCH 2020 NEWS Lockdown only when public health says so, Abela says Robert Abela (below): Employers want State to pay quaranine leave MCAST is an equal opportunities employer. • Project Administrator - ERDF 9.036 (Jobsplus Permit No. 679/2019) Closing date Wednesday 25 March 2020 by 12.00pm. For further details, requirements and application process go to MCAST jop portal http://jobs.mcast.edu.mt MCAST IS RECRUITING Opera onal Programme I – European Structural and Investment Funds 2014-2020 "Fostering a compe ve and sustainable economy to meet our challenges" Project part-financed by the European Regional and Development Fund Co-financing rate: 80% European Union; 20% Na onal Funds