The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses (MUMN) has announced industrial action after it accused the government of not being sensitive enough to the “continuous deteriorating working conditions” of social workers.
Social workers in the public service have been instructed not take any new referrals, and to not do any mental welfare officer duties.
MUMN also told social workers to not follow up on patients who failed to attend their visits, and to not do any tasks assigned to care workers or other supporting staff.
Further to this, social workers are not to accept any new students from next semester and to refuse extra clinical work.
MUMN general secretary Colin Galea said discussions on a new sectoral agreement for social workers in the public service were taking extremely long.
The union wanted to introduce a decent working environment
Mr Galea said that the conditions of work for these professionals were worsening on a weekly basis.
New graduates were being repelled from joining the workforce in the public sector due to the “negative environment at their place of work”.
“The government is not sensitive enough to the continuous deteriorating working conditions of these employees who in turn are doing miracles to offer a decent service to their client,” he said.
He noted that another sore point was that they were the only professionals in the health and elderly departments that were not entitled to funds to continue developing in their profession.
The MUMN general secretary said through the signing of a new sectoral agreement the union wanted to introduce a decent working environment, offering a holistic service to clients. The MUMN also wanted to incentivise social workers by offering them the possibility of career progression.
“By prolonging this exercise, social workers are leaving the profession… In doing so the situation is getting even worse,” Mr Galea said.
The MUMN warned the industrial action would only stop once the sectoral agreement was signed.
Earlier this year, the MUMN wrote to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, lamenting the shortage of social workers in public hospitals.
In May, the CEO of the Social Welfare Foundation warned MPs sitting on the Family Affairs Committee that too few people were interested in pursuing a career in social work.
CEO Alfred Grixti said only 138 people graduated as social workers from the university between 2011 and 2015. Of these, 73 were employed directly by the foundation.
“I cannot explain why but students seem to prefer to enter courses on social policy rather than on social work. The supply does not meet the demand and as a result, the foundation has had to engage social support workers in order to aid social workers,” Mr Grixti said.