UHM calls for industrial action at mouse infested Medicines Authority

David Darmanin
About a dozen employees at the Medicines Authority (MA) had their July salaries reduced after the Union Haddiema Maqghudin asked them not to report for work until their offices were cleared from pests, this newspaper has learnt.
“Medicines Authority staff had been complaining about the presence of mice and cockroaches at their offices,” UHM’s Health and Safety Section Secretary Joe Bonello confirmed. “This happened over a number of months, and although management took some action in trying to resolve the problem, employees were still seeing mice and their droppings as well as cockroaches. The situation was unacceptable. You wouldn’t expect a mouse to suddenly pop out of a box while at work.”
It seems that, on 21 July, after management implemented pest control measures, members of staff entered the authority’s offices to find a dead mouse lying on the floor. Within hours, they saw another one roaming around indoors.
Suspecting that the situation would pose a serious health risk, the UHM Health and Safety Section was informed, and on the same day, Bonello insisted with the authority to take appropriate and immediate measures.
Meanwhile, UHM also instructed the staff not to enter the offices until proper action is taken.
Bonello claimed that the Medicines Authority CEO Dr Patricia Vella Bonanno asked for the names of staff members who had been directed to leave the office building.
“I asked her whether this would influence their salaries, and she gave us a guarantee it would not,” he said.
When contacted for her comments, Vella Bonanno said: “Some of the employees left the offices and stayed outside on the landing. Management insisted that there was no risk to merit that the employees leave the premises. Moreover, all the necessary actions had been taken. The dead mice resulted from the control measures – as expected. Alternative solutions such as working from places where neither mice, nor droppings, had ever been sighted were put forward but these were not considered. When the OHSA were contacted they recommended that an independent risk assessment was performed.”
She also assured that two pest control firms carried out risk assessments.
“The reports of both companies showed that there was no risk to merit that the employees leave the premises,” she said. “None of them recommended specific treatment for fleas. The UHM insisted on the need for treatment for fleas. Due to this position, treatment for fleas was done by a contractor on the afternoon of 22 July. Not all employees wanted to have their desks treated for fleas. The employees went back to their offices to work on 23 July.”
Seeing that she had taken all action possible, Vella Bonanno considered that employees should not be paid for the hours during which they did not work, irking the UHM for going back on her word.
“Some of the members of staff were working outside office premises, but still got their wages cut off,” Bonello said.
“We are now insisting with MA to reimburse all of the employees whose wages were deducted.
“We met up with Dr Vella and a Finance Ministry official to resolve this issue, but they would not budge. The official went as far as telling us: ‘God forbid we had to take such drastic actions for every mouse sighting at offices as we would end up with every office in Malta shut down.’ This was clearly out of line. In any case, we have now informed the Labour office and unless employees do not receive the amount deducted in this month’s salary cheque, we will be taking industrial action.”

ddarmanin@mediatoday.com.mt

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