As their industrial action continues to bite, the union representing public sector paramedics says they are not making impossible requests, as the government has claimed, but demanding a salary in line with their professional qualifications.

They just want to be paid as much as they deserve and are asking for the restructuring of their salary entitlement, according to Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin president Jesmond Bonello.

At the end of June, 800 paramedics, such as physiotherapists and laboratory technicians, were instructed not to carry out community work or use means of communication, among other directives which do not include emergency cases but are affecting patient services.

Sources said the union was requesting that paramedics’ salaries be increased by a scale, from nine to eight, which could mean a pay increase of up to €1,000 for most of the 800 workers.

This would cost the government about €800,000 a year, at a time when the government was trying to cut €8.5 million from the budget of the health sector as part of the €40 million EU-imposed budget cuts.

On Monday the health and finance ministries slammed the UĦM over the dispute, saying the union had raised the paramedics’ expectations to levels “which cannot be met” while putting patients’ health at serious risk.

The union is demanding a revision of the sectoral agreement to improve working conditions and salary package.

On Monday the government said it was not possible to negotiate different salary scales for groups of employees within the public service and neither could it automatically promote all paramedics.

The Health Ministry said it had proposed the introduction of a new grade in a higher salary scale which would be filled by paramedics based on meritocracy.

However, Mr Bonello said this was not a case of meritocracy since the paramedics were not asking for a promotion. They were asking to be paid a fair salary for their job and qualifications.