UHM vows to fight on

The Union Haddiema Maghqudin is to carry on fighting for ambulance drivers using all the industrial and legal means possible, section secretary John M. Briffa said yesterday.

He said the Health Division`s stop-leave for these workers throughout the period of industrial action was strange, discriminatory and illegal.

All ambulance drivers, he said, were reporting for work normally according to their roster, so such an administrative order did not make sense and was only punitive.

The dispute started after ambulance drivers finished a course in first aid and the union asked the government to start giving them an allowance of Lm3.75 a week, as had been given to health assistants who did portering duties with ambulances.

After the request was repeatedly refused the union resorted to taking partial industrial action.

However, after meetings were held with the health and social policy ministers last March, providing a ray of hope, the union suspended its actions.

On April 19 it was informed that its request was being turned down, leading it to re-embark on industrial action. It instructed ambulance drivers not to carry patients unless a nurse was present.

This, the union said yesterday, had been done to safeguard the patients` health and safety.

The union pointed out that ambulance drivers were the least paid workers in the emergency services section.

Even though porters, who only had to be present on ambulances and to assist in carrying patients in and out, were ranked one grade lower in the salary scales, they received a salary allowance.

This meant that effectively, they were being paid more than drivers. Such an anomaly was not acceptable and had to be rectified, the union said.

The UHM argued that the public expected someone who was medically knowledgeable to be present in ambulances to assist patients.

It said it was not requesting an allowance to be paid simply to increase the ambulance drivers` pay.

It was requesting that, in view of the fact that nurses were never present on ambulances, the government should do its part in providing the public with a better service and in doing so acknowledge the ambulance drivers` work and responsibility.

The government`s obstinacy was ultimately depriving the public from getting a better service, it argued.

The UHM said that although it did not like to resort to industrial action, it had a legal right to do so when all else failed.

It said it had been mature enough to only take industrial action as a last resort. In taking such action, it made sure not to interfere with the services offered to patients as it realised that this issue was not the patients` fault.

The government was investing millions of liri in building a new state hospital and the UHM could not understand how the government was refusing to invest in human resources.