Support Services Ltd has objected to a speech by GWU general secretary Tony Zarb on Tuesday during which he reiterated a warning to employers of care workers in the health sector “not to mess about with working conditions”.

Mr Zarb had said these companies had better change their ways “or face the union’s wrath”.

Support Services Ltd said this morning that as the main operator in the sector employing hundreds of care workers, such talk was unacceptable and unless it was publicly withdrawn it would hold Mr Zarb personally responsible for damages.

It said that a collective agreement between the company and the workers’ union was signed a few days ago and Mr Zarb’s speech was disparaging to another union. The new collective agreement, it said, had not been objected to and workers benefitted from better wages and conditions.

Mr Zarb also mocked the creation of an in-house union for care workers by the employers saying it was a union with officials chosen by the employer.

This, Support Services Ltd said, was an insult and an unacceptable statement.

The real problem, the company said, was coming from the management’s attitude, primarily the management of Mater Dei, St Vincent de Paul and Mount Carmel hospitals who treated the care workers employed by the company and those in the civil service in a different manner.

In a statement issued this afternoon, Mr Zarb said he stood by what he said and would not be withdrawing any statements he made.