Psychologists will be meeting to consider industrial action on March 9 because the government was dragging its feet over the revision of the 1996 collective agreement.

Malta Union of Professional Psychologists president Bernard Caruana told a news conference this morning that several government divisions were also breaching the current agreement.

These included the home affairs, education and health divisions, where some psychologists were employed on a contract basis.

Moreover, in the education sector only one person was employed in the grade of psychologist. There were another two psychology graduates who, however, did not carry this title. There were also about 13 trainees.

In home affairs, which covered the Corradino prisons, there was only one psychologist and two on loan and in health, which covered Mater Dei and Mount Carmel hospitals, there were 16 psychologists, half of whom were on contract.

Mr Caruana noted that there were waiting lists across the board and the waiting time was of a year or longer.

Psychologists, Mr Caruana said, wanted a structure in place so as to be able to provide a better service and reduce waiting lists. But the government had no vision for psychology in Malta.

He noted that discussions on the revision of the collective agreement had started in 2009. But after several meetings and when the process was coming to a conclusion, the authorities started to drag their feet. But it was now time for action, Mr Caruana said.

He said that since this morning's news conference was called, the authorities scheduled a meeting for March 14 to continue discussing the agreement.