The Malta Developers Association (MDA) said on Saturday it was ready to agree to a temporary reduction in working hours on construction sites due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The developers' lobby said it was ready to discuss a new working time framework with the authorities, as long as the industry's 16,000 employees were "duly compensated for the loss in their income through public schemes identical to those given to other industries and businesses".
It said there were currently two conflicting laws dictating the time when certain construction works could start. The MDA said it had already directed its members to abide by the more recent - in which works are allowed to start at 8am rather than 7am, effectively giving up an hour of working time.
Five local councils on Friday jointly called for construction and excavation works to only be permitted between 8.30am and 1pm, amid widespread complaints from residents, particularly the elderly, expressing frustration at having to live with constant construction works while being required to remain indoors.
The MDA in its statement also called for stricter enforcement on developers starting construction works earlier than allowed by law.
It said it had received complaints - against individuals who it said were "mostly" not members of the association - of excavation and demolition starting as early as 5am.
"MDA is also proposing that, in order of holding everyone to account and in view of already stringent policing resources, the government directs local councils and community officers to enforce the construction laws and ensure that they are fully abided to by everyone with no distinction."
NGOs call for total suspension
Meanwhile, in a statement, a group of environmental NGOs jointly called for a total suspension of all excavation works during the crisis.
The NGOs - including Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar, Graffitti, Friends of the Earth - said noise from excavation work was between 95 and 110 decibels, when the World Health Organisation (WHO) had warns that exposure to noise above 85 decibels was dangerous to human health.
"Residents confined to their homes are being subjected to unbearable noise which they can’t escape, while children and the elderly cannot even relax in their gardens which are unbearably noisy or choked by dust from nearby developments," the NGOs said. "Equally, residents are not able to open their windows due to the dust generated by construction sites."
The NGOs also endorsed calls by emergency doctor Jonathan Joslin to call for all non-essential construction to cease immediately since “a large percentage of major trauma dealt with in the Emergency Department over the past year resulted from construction sites”, depriving hospitals of resources now needed for COVID-19 patients.
"It is bad enough that developers have just been granted a three-year extension on permits. ENGOs and residents demand to know why construction is not being curtailed like other non-essential sectors. It is shocking that in order to protect this sacred cow, politicians are permitting developers to continue to inflict suffering on residents at this time of national crisis, hampering COVID-19 medical efforts."