Bonġu News at 06:00

One-time compensation for heatwave power cuts

Consumers affected by power cuts due to the heatwave in July will finally receive a one-time compensation of up to €110.

Residential accounts that had their supply interrupted for a total of more than six hours will automatically receive a credit to their utility bills.

Affected businesses will be able to claim one-time payments of up to 200% of their monthly average consumption in summer 2022.

Malta Enterprise will accept applications from Friday until the end of the year.

Sectoral agreement: Nurses set for significant raise

Malta’s nurses are set for a significant raise as a new sectoral agreement was signed with the government on Monday.

The nurses’ salaries will increase by €4,000 to €6,000 per year, and hours worked beyond the 40-hour week will be paid at overtime rates.

The agreement also includes increases of various allowances and revised staff-to-patient ratios for Mater Dei Hospital and St Vincent de Paul Home.

Nurses union president Paul Pace described the agreement as “historic” and a “milestone”.

‘No need to inform EU about SOCAR deal’ – Muscat

Joseph Muscat said there was no need to inform the EU about a deal with Azerbaijan’s energy company SOCAR.

That deal was separate to the agreement between the Maltese government and Electrogas, Muscat argued on Tuesday.

His government wanted to ensure that if Electrogas went bankrupt, it would be able to buy gas itself at the same rates.

Hours before Muscat’s fifth testimony before the Public Accounts Committee, he was accused of misleading parliament in an earlier sitting.

The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation said that Muscat had claimed that the European Commission had “full visibility of all the information”.

The foundation referred to the commission’s reply that the SOCAR deal was “not part of the notification to the Commission”.

Joseph Muscat told the Public Accounts Committee it should ask the Auditor General to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of the deal.

Gozitan students get back their direct bus route

The bus route X300 between Ċirkewwa, Mater Dei and the university was discontinued two years ago when the fast ferry was introduced.

Gozitan university students have called for its reintroduction. The taxpayers will be spending €210,000 per year on the service.