The president of the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses, Paul Pace, yesterday said the MUMN would not be excluding a general industrial action that would affect the service of nurses.
“We are not excluding anything. We will try to not to affect patients who are weak and vulnerable. We will ensure the service can keep on running. But those who can wait will have to keep on waiting,” a stern Paul Pace told MaltaToday yesterday. “We mean business.”
The MUMN declared an industrial dispute at Zammit Clapp Hospital and warned the government it will issue directives for industrial action by all nurses from 21 April.
Pace said nurses were being paid a negotiated increase in their salaries since before the election, but said “bureaucratic excuses” were being used not to pay the remainder of the premium.
Pace said the dispute was over the failure of the Treasury to grant the increase to the nursing premium in terms of the agreement reached with the Health Department last year.
Nurses and midwives will this year receive an increase of €582.34 (Lm250) on their nursing premium. The first payment was issued in February but the union said it had been informed that the second, due this month, would not be issued.
The wage bonus is part of the latest collective agreement signed in October 2007, in which the health ministry agreed to pay nurses a premium, in four instalments throughout the year. In February, just before the general election, government paid nurses their first instalment of the year. The next one is due on 21 April.
The Treasury is claiming the bonus issued on 21 February, three weeks before the general election, was issued irregularly, and that the bonuses specified in the collective agreement should have been issued six months in arrears.
“We have already taken the first payments before the elections, and we expect them to be paid this month as well. You just cannot switch on and switch off,” Pace said.
Social policy minister John Dalli has already called the union for a reconciliation meeting for tomorrow Thursday.
Pace also said that Mater Dei Hospital had recently opened a new ward of 30 extra beds in the day surgery unit. “There are is no staff or no nurses to man the wards, so they are taking it in their stride: they are being asked to cover the new ward as well. With all the sacrifices we are doing, the government is trying to reduce costs on all nurses, which is highly unethical. We are 400 nurses short on this island but what they do instead is frustrate nurses.”
“It is a known fact that during the last six months, nurses and midwives have been suffering the consequences of critical staff shortages. Through continuous sacrifices, they are continuing to go out of their way to ensure that the health service continues, for the sake of all patients. The Treasury’s attitude is only continuing to dampen the spirits our professional staff, most of which are already on the brink of collapse.”
The MUMN also reported shortages at the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU). The union said that in certain shifts, wards are being left with just one nurse where two are normally required.
The government had previously proposed it would solve the problem with the employment of 100 foreign nurses, but the union said only 15 had been employed so far.

mvella@mediatoday.com.mt