Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/616203
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 16 DECEMBER 2015 3 News News Pioneer Road, Bugibba U Mob: 99216161 U email: info@talpjazza.com U facebook.com/talpjazza Busuttil says he won't honour PN deal on Armier boathouses GABRIEL SCHEMBRI OPPOSITION leader Simon Busuttil has said he will not be bound to a deal struck by his predecessor with the owners of the boathouses in Armier, who are claiming ownership of the public land they occupied ille- gally. In comments to the media af- ter a meeting with the Ombuds- man, Busuttil said that, as from the last election, there was no deal with the owners. However, Busuttil said he is willing to meet and discuss the issue with interested parties. "Today the PN has a new leader, and there is no deal. I am ready to meet anyone… but don't ex- pect me to be tied down to a deal in which I was not involved," Bu- suttil said. The previous PN government had reached an agreement with members of the Armier boat- house lobby for the building of new beach rooms instead of the old boathouses. Asked about the Ombuds- man's report on parliamentary secretary Ian Borg's property in Rabat, currently the subject of an anti-corruption probe, and the fact that the Prime Minister said that there were a number of mis- takes in the report, Busuttil said that Muscat had to respect what planning ombudsman David Pace had said. "Even if he does not agree, Joseph Muscat should respect what the Ombudsman says. On what the Ombudsman remarked, Muscat already has a good rea- son to suspend the Parliamen- tary Secretary," he added. Busuttil said that while the Prime Minister was expecting the highest standards from the Nationalist Party, he completely ignored standards when it came to his own government mem- bers. The current government is bound by a pre-electoral agree- ment with the Armier lobby, promising to regularise boat- houses constructed before 1992. The saga dates back to the 1970s and 80s and saw thousands of boathouses built with impunity on public land. The last attempt to demol- ish the boathouses took place in 1992, but the operation was aborted. Successive PN adminis- trations signed agreements with the squatters, in 2003 and 2008, in which they promised to hand over 230 tumoli of public land to Armier Developments Ltd (a company owned by the illegal squatters) for a 65-year lease against an annual Lm157,000 (€350,000) payment. The squatter's lobby also signed parallel agreements with the La- bour Party, committing the lat- ter not to demolish the shacks. The agreement was ratified on the eve of the 2013 election. No agreement was signed with the PN before the last election, during which the Green Party was particularly vocal against this lobby group. ADL submitted an application for the construction of 1,500 units, 30% of them to be allo- cated to new dwellers. But the merits of this application can- not be determined by the Malta Environmental and Planning Authority (MEPA), because the land in question is subject to conditions laid out in the Marfa Action Plan, which is still in draft form and not yet approved by the House of Representatives. Busuttil: Trade unions should put workers above politics MARTINA BORG PN leader Simon Busuttil said yes- terday that trade unionism should go beyond partisan issues and fo- cus on the needs of the workers it represents. "We appreciate this role and want to make sure it is properly fulfilled independent of any political ties," he said at a meeting at the PN headquarters with the new admin- istration of the General Workers Union. Making particular references to the issue of Enemalta workers and the privatisation of the Gozo general hospital, Busuttil said the GWU was often not in agreement with the PN and that he felt more could have been done in defence of the workers. GWU secretary general Josef Bugeja said that the aim of the un- ion was to meet with and discuss extensively with social partners to improve better conditions for workers. Bugeja added that the GWU had looked at the way Enemalta em- ployees and Gozo general hospital employees would be affected by the privatisation. "Workers will still be employed by the government and they will still be government employees un- der the same contracts as before," he said, quoting a document, which prompted Busuttil to question whether the privatisation made sense if the workers would still be employed by the government. "It is now not just about jobs but it is about the quality of jobs," Bugeja said, adding that more op- portunities needed to be provided to bring both parties together to support growth in various sectors and reach more people. "The mismatch of skills needs to be addressed to prepare for the challenges and industries of the future," he said adding that more needed to be done to address skills gaps created in gaming industries among others. "We need to look at employment rules and regulations even where trade unions are absent," he said, making particular reference to the construction industry among oth- ers, where many foreigners were being hired even though Maltese employees might have adequate skills anyway. Bugeja and Busuttil both looked forward to further cooperation and dialogue between the PN and the GWU.