GWU suspends action

The General Workers' Union has suspended the industrial action by nursing aides, care workers and health assistants for three weeks, during which time talks will be held with the government in a bid to resolve the dispute.

The decision marks a change of heart for the union, after it indicated last Friday that its directives would be in place for another two weeks because holiday plans meant its officials would not be able to meet for discussions.

Later on that day the union informed the government that it was prepared to go back to the negotiating table. On Sunday it said it was prepared to call off the action only as long as a meeting was first held with the authorities and it was assured that their intentions were "serious".

Yesterday, the union called off the action after an arrangement was made to restart meetings, the first one scheduled for tomorrow. The decision followed a meeting with Employment and Industrial Relations director Noel Vella.

The three weeks will serve as a cooling off period and intensive discussions are expected to be held.

For the last 12 days, bedridden patients at state hospitals and homes for the elderly - and the nurses who care for them - have had to cope without staff who help wash them and get them out of bed. The staff represented by the GWU have only been doing food-related duties, calculated by the Health Division as representing only 15 per cent of their normal tasks.

GWU section secretary Louis Marsh said yesterday that the government had accepted to discuss the three issues that the union has been insisting on - nursing aides' right to wage scale 13, the roster and a premium allowance for the three categories.

He said "God forbid" if the government did not discuss the three issues, adding that there would surely be consequences. He did not spell out the consequences, adding they could be the same, harsher or milder than the directives called off at midnight yesterday.

In a statement, Health Minister Louis Deguara expressed satisfaction that the directives had been suspended, saying that issues could only be resolved through discussion.

The directives were briefly called off last Friday when a meeting between the government and the union was held. But the meeting was inconclusive and the union reinstated the directives after less than 24 hours.

Workers had further been instructed not to do any work related to the migration to Mater Dei Hospital. Those working at St Luke's Hospital's outpatient department and health centres were not to process medical files or X-Rays and health centre employees were not taking appointments.

Normality has been restored from today, for now at least.