Valletta: Around 4,000 nurses and midwives in Malta have gone on strike to protest against the government’s continued disregard for the demand for a decent sectoral agreement. The strike was called by the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses.
The General Workers Union has also stated its complete support for the MUMN strike. The General Workers Union has announced that the union members will not perform the duties of midwives and nurses. With this, Malta’s health sector has come to a standstill. Various hospitals’ operations have been disrupted as a result of the strike.
Staff are on strike at all public hospitals in Malta, including Mater Dei Hospital, Mount Carmel Hospital, the Primary Care Department, Karin Grech Hospital, Gozo General Hospital, St. Vincent de Paul Hospital, and Senior Homes.
The strike was called due to disagreements over EVS implementation, appraisal reports, and the use of robots to distribute medications. Discussions in this regard were ongoing. The union submitted demands of 130 million euros to the government, including allowances, taxes, and pensions. But there was an attempt by the officials to make the health workers bad by leaking it to the media. Such incidents were unheard of before. This aggravated the situation.
Union strongly criticised the government.
The union came out with severe criticism against the health department. According to MUMN President Paul Pace, the Department of Health has no regard for nurses and midwives. The union claims that despite months of negotiations between the union and the Department of Health, the problem has not been resolved. All nursing and midwifery employees are dissatisfied with the current sectoral agreement.
The Permanent Secretary’s office is attempting to intimidate nurses into working. For this, court punishments are regularly adopted. This is not acceptable. The department and the Permanent Secretary’s office have completely rejected the health workers who have been protecting patients during the COVID period. The union called upon the health workers to resist and defeat this attitude.
This is how the struggle looks.
Union members have been instructed to complete non-cooperation, including in the out-patients department of . Do not answer the phone or contact patients. Union has instructed to stop washing except for ITU and CCU patients at Karin Grech Hospital and Gozo General Hospital. The union also said that the deliveries of food, medicines etc. should not be signed in the wards. Senior nursing managers’ duties and clerical work should be suspended. The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses is going on strike because it is no longer ready to negotiate without a change in the government’s position and the government’s proposals are “humiliating” and “demotivating”.
Nurses from all public hospitals will participate in the strike, except the Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre.
Steward Healthcare.
Meanwhile, following the latest development in the takeover controversy, Steward Healthcare employees have been ordered not to attend any meetings called by the government.
Steward President Nadine Delicata and Chief Transition Officer Miroslav Boyanov informed employees in an email sent Thursday that the government was attempting to illegally take over the hospitals and that they had begun calling employees to meetings and telling them not to attend.
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