Doctors across the health service will strike for an hour on Tuesday and stop lectures at the Medical School on Monday over pending issues their union has with the university and the Health Ministry.

Tuesday's one-hour stoppage, between 8am and 9am, excludes wards, the emergency and operating theatres, doctors' union general secretary Martin Balzan announced this afternoon.

Moreover, starting from 8am on Tuesday, doctors will not issue sickness medical certificates.

The Medical Association of Malta this morning accused the University of Malta of acting in a discriminatory manner when it excluded it from negotiations on the collective agreement for academic staff.

The association filed a judicial protest against the university, the University of Malta Academic Staff Association and the Malta Union of Teachers alleging it had been left of the negotiations despite representing the majority of academic staff.

Earlier, it registered an industrial dispute and said it intended to issue directives.

Addressing a news conference this afternoon, Dr Balzan said:

"If the situation at the Medical School is not resolved by October when the new academic year starts, you can say there will be no  longer be a Medical School. We are not going to die of hunger without it," he said.

Although no lectures will be given on Monday, bedside teaching will continue.

Dr Balzan said that at university, MAM wanted to be recognised as the union which represented the 400 lecturers at the Medical School.

"We do not want the union representing university lecturers to represent doctors who lecture there and have been requesting recognition for six years but always found opposition from the university," he said.

In its judicial protest, signed by lawyer Robert Abela, MAM accused the University acting in a discriminatory manner when it excluded it from negotiations on the collective agreement for academic staff.

MAM said Umasa had 293 members and it had 400 so it did not make sense for the university to proceed with negotiations without including MAM.

It said it was abusive to continue negotiations and UMASA and MUT had no right to sign an agreement on behalf of the academic staff.

MAM held the university responsible if it did not include the association in the negotiations.

It said that doctors did not want Umasa to represent them, they did not trust it and wanted it to stay out of what was strictly their business at the Medical School.

MAM said its dispute was registered on the basis of non‐compliance with the current collective agreement in areas such as the implementation of career progression for a number of grades and the non‐implementation of extra sessions for resident specialists.

The association also complained about illegal shifts and said that in Gozo, a number of doctors have not been paid according to their collective agreement.
 
Retired consultants too were not being paid according to  the collective agreement. 

Furthermore, a number of calls for the recruitment of consultants had not been made despite their urgency. 

The union said it also has a dispute with the University over the collective agreement for staff in the Medical School.

RECOGNISED UNIONS ARE UMASA, MUT - UNIVERSITY

But the university said in a statement the unions recognised to represent academic staff working at the university and the Junior College are Umasa and MUT.

"This representation covers all academics irrespective of their discipline and irrespective of the faculty, institute, centre or school they belong to."

All academics were treated equitably in accordance with the collective agreement agreed upon with the recognised unions and had every opportunity to give their feedback and suggestions to the recognised unions during the course of the negotiations.

"It is absurd for MAM to declare an industrial dispute with the University on the basis that they claim to represent the majority of the academic staff working at the Medical School.

"It is important to note that the Medical School is not a legal entity in its own right, in fact it does not exist statutorily."

The University said it held all academics working in the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery and in the Faculty of Dental Surgery in the highest esteem and categorically refuted MAM’s claim that it was treating medical doctors unfairly.

"Indeed it has gone to great lengths to formally recognise clinical teaching conducted at the bedside as well as tutorials, seminars and lectures."

NURSES HIT AT DOCTORS' FOR REGISTERING INDUSTRIAL DISPUTE

The nurses’ union this morning criticised the Medical Association of Malta (MAM) for registering an industrial dispute accusing it of “attempting to use patient health services to attain its far-fetched aims”.

In its statement, the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses said MAM had always stressed that unions, especially in the health sector, should avoid directives as not to affect patients’ health.

However, it was now opting to adopt a highly militant strategy that would negatively affect patient care when the law clearly stated that employers would only negotiate on collective agreements with the unions which had official recognition.

It accused MAM of using “pending issues” to put pressure on the university to the detriment of good industrial relations.

“Worse still MAM is attempting to use patient health services to attain its far-fetched aims. This is simply not right,” MUMN said.

It appealed to MAM not to use patients to apply pressure on the university.

UMASA CONDEMNS DISPUTE

UMASA strongly condemned what it described as MAM’s “eleventh hour attempt to derail the legitimately negotiated collective agreement” for academic staff when it was clear it did not enjoy representation according to Maltese law.

“The general assembly is especially disappointed in noting that this attempt came from a fellow professional association,” it said.