The doctors' union said today that its collective agreement does not stop the Mater Dei Hospital management from retaining doctors after retirement age.
The union was reacting to claims that the management was following the collective agreement when it did not retain cardiologist Albert Fenech past his retirement age.
The union did not mention Prof. Fenech by name.
It said that while the collective agreement states that: “Renewal of contracts beyond the statutory retirement age will only be considered after no suitable candidate would have been found to fill the post in a recruitment process initialised at least six months prior to the date of retirement”, this is not specific to this agreement but it is a reflection of the Public Service Management Code which regulates human resources management in the public service. This was clarified by a recent Public Service Commission ruling.
Recognising that the expertise of consultants who have reached retirement age may continue to be required, the government-MAM agreement of 2013 makes the following provision: “Sessions may be offered to retired consultants if the management is unable to recruit enough consultants in that specialty or if the need arises.”
In view of the above, the MAM said, it would like to state that the Government-MAM agreement of 2013 does not preclude the management from retaining post-retirement doctors in cases where there is no replacement or if the need arises. In fact, several post-retirement consultants have been re-engaged or had their contracts extended by the Department of Health.
In a reaction, the government said the MAM had confirmed that the hospital management was correct in the decision it had taken.
The procedure applied for Prof Fenech was the same applied for other consultants according to the collective agreement signed before the general election.
The MAM itself had confirmed that a consultant may be retained past retirement age if the vacancy in his post was not filled.
In the cardiology department, a new consultant was appointed in September last year while another consultant started working last month.
Therefore the department had a sufficient number of consultants.
It was also worth pointing out that Prof Fenech was given a year's extension last year.