Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/702975
8 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 13 JULY 2016 News IN ALL LEADING BOOK SHOPS HISTORY OF ORNITHOLOGY IN MALTA Police file judicial protest over unpaid overtime THE Malta Police Association has filed a judicial protest to demand payment for overtime to members who worked extra hours during the Valletta mi- gration summit and the Com- monwealth Heads of Govern- ment Meeting held last year. The protest was filed against the principal permanent secre- tary at the Office of the Prime Minister, Mario Cutajar, and the permanent secretary at the Home Affairs Ministry, Kevin Mahoney. It was filed after several at- tempts made by the MPA for payment went ignored, the as- sociation said in a statement. It said that some officers worked 150 hours of overtime during the two events, and they have still not been paid. The government is insisting that this is a matter of "distur- bance allowance", but the MPA argues that these officers were detailed and obliged to carry out this work. "If the police officers' con- ditions of work document needs to be amended to rectif y anomalies, then this should be done immediately. This abuse should stop," the association added, calling for talks for a collective agreement. "Police officers form part of the public service and should benefit from the basic condi- tions others benefit from. All work deserves to be paid for." It added that it is prepared to take all legal action needed for the situation to be settled. The Malta Police Association has filed a judicial protest to demand payment for unpaid overtime during the Valletta Summit and CHOGM meetings in 2015 Muscat pledges higher enforcement on foreign-owned shops Prime Minister says government carefully weighing up options to help local councils address long-standing problem of fund shortages TIM DIACONO PRIME Minister Joseph Muscat pledged to beef up regulatory en- forcement on shops owned by im- migrants, saying it is only fair that they and Maltese shop-owners should play by the same rules. "Foreign and Maltese shop- owners should abide by the same regulations, but unfortunately enforcement is lacking," he admit- ted. He was speaking at an open Cabinet meeting with mayors and councillors at the Fgura primary school, in response to a complaint about immigrants by Marsa coun- cillor Frank Zammit, who ad- dressed the meeting on behalf of the town's mayor. "Marsa residents aren't racist, but they are fed up of the arrogant attitude displayed by some im- migrants," he said. "They are no longer limited to the Marsa Open Centre but have now spread out across the locality." Muscat said that he sympathized with the concerns of Marsa citi- zens, agreeing that they weren't the result of racism and noting that he heard personal stories of immigrants integrating with the town's residents. He said that a new system aimed at banning the exploitation of im- migrants waiting for job offers by the Marsa roundabout will soon be implemented, after a consul- tation period ended a few weeks ago. A jobs centre – operated by government employment agency Jobs+ – will be set up in Marsa and will charge employers for coupons to be handed out to im- migrants instead of cash. The im- migrants will then be able to ex- change their coupons for cash at the jobs centre. During the meeting, the coun- cillors from the Southern Harbour District summarized the state of their localities, with many of them praising the Labour government for investing in the South. Several complaints were related to local council funding, traffic, parking, and waste management. Valletta mayor Alexiei Dingli urged the government to beef up enforcement against contractors who work without permits, shop- owners who illegally set up tables and chairs in the streets, and abus- es of resident parking schemes. He also called for more police to be allocated to the Valletta po- lice station, warning that some residents are scared at the conse- quences of the capital's growing popularity with youth. Marsaxlokk mayor Horace Gauci said that historical build- ings should be restored as part of a €6 million project announced recently, while Marsaskala mayor Mario Calleja praised the upcom- ing construction of the 'American University of Malta' at Zonqor Point, and called for the rehabili- tation of the former Jerma Palace Hotel. In his opening speech, Fgura mayor Byron Camilleri warned that the traffic situation in his lo- cality has deteriorated, and that it is now traffic-heavy at every hour of the day. "We urge the government to hold a meeting with the council, so that together we can plan new alternative roads to divert traffic from the heart of Fgura," he said, while also calling for more open spaces in the locality. Muscat said that the govern- ment is weighing up options to ad- dress the long-standing problem of shortages in local government funding, but warned that such a solution will not be easy. "Previous public-private part- nership schemes for large infra- structural projects left councils drowning in debt, and any solu- tion must be more reasonable than that," he said. He toasted his government's in - vestment in the South of Malta, arguing that growing traffic and cleanliness problems in the region are the consequence of increased economic activity. "Together we are addressing the imbalance that existed for many years, when economic activity used to take place in the centre and the north of the island, and the south was left as the industrial relic of the 1970s and 80s." Prime Minister Joseph Muscat at the Cabinet meeting with local councillors from the Southern Harbour District