Nursing aides intimidated - UHM

A number of nursing aides, care workers and health assistants who wanted to carry on with their work have been "intimidated" into following industrial action, Union Haddiema Maghqudin section secretary Joseph Bonello claimed yesterday.

As industrial action by the General Workers' Union in state hospitals, health centres and homes for the elderly entered its second day yesterday, Mr Bonello told The Times some employees who did not want to follow the directives were feeling threatened by GWU officials.

When contacted, GWU government and public entities section secretary Louis Marsh said he had no reports about this matter, either from the union's members or representatives or from Health Department officials.

On Monday, the GWU reinstated directives it had suspended around a month ago after 12 days of action. The directives call on workers in hospitals and homes for the elderly to only do food-related jobs.

The union stopped talks with the authorities earlier this month after the government reached an agreement with the UHM, which also represents a number of workers in the three categories. The GWU wants to be awarded sole recognition.

When contacted, Mr Bonello said workers had complained they were uncomfortable not following directives. Some workers were going about their normal duties but were stopping when some GWU officials came around because they felt intimidated. The directives are being felt mostly at St Vincent de Paul Residence, because of the vast number of bedridden patients, and at Mount Carmel Hospital.

The government has raised concerns that the actions could badly affect patients, especially the bedridden ones who might develop bedsores as a consequence.

In a statement yesterday, the GWU said the Health Ministry was using patients as a cover-up for its incompetence.

The union said it had been patiently trying to find a solution for a while, but the government had chosen to strike an agreement with the UHM. The union said it had requested sole recognition for nursing aides five weeks ago, adding that the ministry ought to know that no responsible union would wait for ever to get an answer.