Ambulance drivers at Mater Dei Hospital have been instructed not to fill checklists and wash vehicles in retaliation to a management decision to use private personnel when they are understaffed.

General Workers’ Union assistant section secretary Kendrick Bondin said the government was using private ambulance drivers even though there were enough working in the public sector.

He said talks on the matter took place months ago and it was agreed ambulance drivers at the St Luke’s Hospital and Mater Dei would form part of the same team.

This never happened and when the Mater Dei garage was understaffed, management hired drivers from the private sector instead of using those at St Luke’s.

Workers were told not to fill in the ambulance checklist, except for oxygen cylinders, and not to wash the vehicles.