The Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin has again stepped up industrial action at the bio-chemical engineering section of Mater Dei Hospital.

This was the second time it was constrained to escalate its actions, the union said.

Additional to the directives already in force, the workers have been ordered, as from today, to accept only a job request if it is given to them by the section head, or deputy head of the ward or section that has requested the job.

The request has to be signed and delivered by hand, the union said.

The employees have already been directed not to use e-mails, internet, mobiles, pagers, fax and telephones. The action was called due to the delay in the arrangement of grades and the filling of vacancies, where needed, in the bio-medical engineering section.

The UĦM has been insisting on these points since June last year, the secretary of the union's government workers section, Edwin Balzan, said.