The UĦM Voice of the Workers said it had signed a collective agreement with the government “under protest and without prejudice”, after a number of points the union insisted on remained unaddressed.

The collective agreement covers nursing aides, health assistants and care workers in hospitals and homes for the elderly.

The UĦM negotiated for months and was met with a “number of obstacles along the way”.  The union said that it was “suddenly” invited to sign a document after presenting a number of counterproposals.

“The UĦM was faced with a number of options: either not sign and continue to insist on the points it felt should be addressed, sign in the knowledge that the pending issues would be put aside and forgotten, or sign and make its thoughts on the document known,” said employment relations manager Mario Sacco.

Negotiated for months, met with a number of obstacles along the way

He said the union chose the latter option to “signal that the chapter on signing the agreement had not yet been closed” and added the agreement still included a number of issues that remained unaddressed.

“There is only one grade that goes up to Scale 12, while the others go up to Scale 13. The UĦM feels that there should be a way, through additional training, for each grade to go up to Scale 12,” he said.

Since the agreement had come into effect on August 27, the union felt there should be a formula to calculate and add the years of service already completed, he added.

“The sectoral agreement will strengthen the careers of those who are in the caring stream. However, we all know that the government subcontracts health services from the private sector to increase the staff numbers,” Mr Sacco said.

The sectoral agreement was also signed without prejudicing the possibility of an agreement on an early-retirement scheme.

“If this scheme were to come into effect, the UĦM would put pressure on the government to include care workers,” he added.

The collective agreement has created a “career stream”. Workers in the care sector will be in one stream and able to progress up the scale according to their years of service, the UĦM said.

The scales start at 17 and continue up to Scale 13 and Scale 12 for nursing aides.