Two-hour strike over car park issue

Nurses, midwives and other hospital staff yesterday staged a two-hour strike in protest over the rise in the parking fee at a car park next to the hospital, after the car park`s administration was given over to the Pietà council.

In a vox-pop after the strike, most people described the action as disgraceful.

Health director general Ray Busuttil said the strike delayed work at the hospital but students gave a helping hand and the situation remained under control.

Under an agreement between the health authorities and the council, hospital workers are now to be charged a preferential rate of 35c to use the car park. They used to be charged 10c and the unions see the rise as too big.

The nurses` and midwives` strike was called by the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses. Other staff, including members of sections such as health assistants and cleaners, were directed to take action by the General Workers` Union.

The Union Haddiema Maghqudin, which represents the latter categories, has also complained about the rise in the fee but section secretary Jimmy Briffa said he was still awaiting the department`s reply to his letter requesting a subsidy.

He said his union had not been approached by either of the other two to give them support in their strike action, and he only learnt about the strike from The Times.

Dr Busuttil said the situation remained unchanged in the sense that the division did not have any agreement or arrangement with any category of employees to subside or pay their parking fees.

It had never received any funds from the car park`s administration and during negotiations with the Pietà council it had taken the initiative to try and obtain a special arrangement for hospital employees.

Pietà mayor Malcolm Mifsud said the council was handed over the administration of the car park and it was now up to the council to provide the services of a normal car park.

It was to see to security, electricity (the place was currently in darkness) and fire-fighting equipment.

He said that during negotiations to take over the car park, the health division had asked the council to consider having preferential rates for hospital staff and after making its calculations the council came up with the rate of 35c.

The council had agreed to the proposal because it believed this made commercial sense as the staff would be regular clients of the car park. The area taken over by the council takes a total of 335 cars.

What was not being understood was that before the council took over the car park, it was not a car park at all but a space where cars were parked, said Dr Mifsud.

So much so that the council had already removed two skips and over 200 sackfuls of rubbish including used syringes. In fact, one of the factors which had instigated the council to take it over was the abuse which had been taking place.

The council also wanted to use the car park as part of a traffic management strategy. The hospital, Dr Mifsud said, attracted thousands of people and it was not right to say that 35c was expensive, especially when one considered the investment and security it would be undergoing.

Dr Mifsud said that tenders for the management and ticketing system of the park had to be submitted by Tuesday.

The council, he added, did not want the car park to be a burden on residents. Not to be so, it had to be self-sufficient, as otherwise, money aimed for other works would have to be allocated to it.

Last night the UHM and the council met for an exchange of views on the issue, and the union put forward proposals on how the fee could be reduced.

After the meeting, Dr Mifsud said the council was open to all proposals but needed to first see what type of ticketing system and other services were going to be adopted before it could take the issue further.

"We have not gone into this project as businessmen. But we do not want to lose money from it," he said.

Mr Briffa said the two sides had agreed to meet again after the tenders are opened.

What are the views of others on the issue?

Federation of Industry director general Edwin Calleja said that in this case, unions did not exactly have an issue with the employer (the government) but with a local council.

This was exactly what had happened when strikes at the Freeport were held. Although the industry was not really the target, it always ended up the victim. The same could be said for sympathy strikes which, he stressed, should be regulated.

Unions, Mr Calleja said, should not fall into such a trap and a strike in such situations was unfair.

This proved the FOI`s point that there should always be arbitration and a mechanism which would not allow things to go to such extremes as this could lead to situations which caused shockwaves.

Mr Calleja pointed out that private employers did not subsidise parking for their employees, even in areas where there was a parking problem.

Unions, he said, were going over the top, for the parking issue was a sectoral one and it could have been resolved otherwise.

Speaking in front of St Luke`s Hospital yesterday morning, MUMN president Rudolph Cini said the issue was one of principle.

The division, he claimed, was discriminating between workers and the MUMN could not continue to accept that people in the nursing and midwifery professions were pushed aside and considered second-class professionals.

The health division was blatantly using two weights and two measures with its workers.

This was because while certain professions were being allowed to park for free within the hospital grounds, nurses and midwives were having to pay 35c a day.

He said the MUMN had reached an agreement with the director general on June 8 saying that the number of surveillance officers should be increased in order to have greater security at the hospital and at the nearby car park.

The agreement, he said, also called on the health authorities to consider installing electronic monitoring surveillance equipment.

That agreement, he claimed, gave the union a legal basis on which to hold the strike.

Mr Cini said the MUMN had always requested the division to involve it in discussions if the car park were ever to be passed to another entity so that the impact could be reduced as much as possible. But he had only learnt that the car park had been passed on to the Pietà council from The Times.

Giving his own version, Dr Busuttil said the agreement mentioned by the MUMN had followed a series of complaints made by nurses, including that their cars were being damaged in the car park.

He said he had promised to ask security personnel at the hospital to keep an eye on the park and that was exactly what he had done.

GWU section secretary Josephine Attard Sultana argued that hospital staff were not like any other state employees.

They worked in an area which offered restricted parking and public transport to the hospital was not as available as public transport to Valletta.

The health division, she said, should stick to its social obligation and subsidise the health workers` parking fee. The rise in parking costs would affect workers directly while the government did not want to increase the wages of its employees.

The GWU, she said, had informed the ministers of health and local government about the issue and it expected them to do their duty and mediate.

She said that the strike had been a complete success and the union was now awaiting developments.

The GWU would also be discussing the issue at executive committee level to see how it should be followed up.

Mr Cini said the parking issue was not the only instance that set the nursing profession back. There were also the amendments being proposed in the White Paper on labour laws, under which the nurses` right to strike - a right recognised by the International Council of Nurses - would be removed.

The health authorities, he said, were totally ignoring World Health Organisation recommendations which considered nurses as the backbone of the health sector.

For the Health Division, he claimed, nurses and midwives were just instruments to be manipulated and kept under the control of other professions.

Most people visiting hospital yesterday and workers in other workplaces slammed the unions for calling the strike, describing the action as most disgraceful.

"It is most disgraceful that unions go to this extent... this has shown what kind of unions we have in this country. Why do we always have to go to extremes?," said one worker.

Another said: "I work in Valletta and no one subsidises my parking fee when I use the public car park at Floriana."

On the other hand, a man from Pietà said he believed the rates should be the same for everyone.

Moreover, if the government subsidised parking rates for hospital staff, what about all its other staff in places where parking was also a hassle, he argued.

"Would government also subsidise their parking at car parks close by or when parking metres are introduced," he asked.