UPDATED: MUMN hits out at UHM over strike

The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses this afternoon strongly criticised a one-hour strike and other industrial action by nursing aides, ordered by the UHM, saying it had affected nurses and patient care. The UHM has also directed the nursing aides not to have any contact with patients.

"The industrial action is unethical and unjustified," MUMN President Paul Pace told a press conference.

The UHM ordered care workers and nursing aides at various sections of Mater Dei Hospital on a strike between 11 a.m. and Noon as it pressed its demand for the payment of an allowance of €1,150 to those being in contact with patients.

But Mr Pace said they disagreed that the allowance was applicable to these workers and the term ‘patient contact' was being wrongly interpreted.

Mr Pace said the allowance had been introduced to encourage more nurses and aides to opt for clinical care, rather than administrative work. Clinical care was about helping the patients in their beds, not carrying them on a stretcher or carrying sterilised equipment out of operating theatres.

Should the government give in to the UHM demands, then the MUMN would itself be submitting a claim for the alowance to be extended to more nurses, the officials said, while adding that it was important to preserve the incentive for more workers to give clinical care.

The Social Policy Ministry in a statement this evening referred to a letter sent to the UHM earlier this month and said the workers of the Medical Imaging Department and the Central Sterile Services Department, which went on strike today, were not eligible for the allowance because they did not perform nurse-related duties which brought them in contact with patients.

Furthermore, of the 200 workers mentioned this morning by Mr Tanti at a press conference, the ministry said 198 had applied for the interview, of whom 45 did not turn up and 80 were illiterate. 60 were found unsuitable for the work they were expected to perform and 12 were suitable. These 12 would be given a short course while the other 80 would follow a more intensive course to make them eligible for the allowance.

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