The General Workers’ Union registered an industrial dispute with the Ministry of Health, the Elderly and Community Care regarding disagreements about procedures for recording the hours worked by nursing aides. Procedural changes were agreed in order to ensure consistency among staff working on the same pay scales. However, the ministry allegedly breached this agreement by instructing the nursing staff to continue using the old procedures. The issue was finally resolved after several conciliatory meetings.
In recent months, an industrial dispute was registered concerning disagreements regarding procedures for recording the hours worked by nursing aides. In January 2007, an agreement had been reached between the Ministry of Health, the Elderly and Community Care and the General Workers’ Union (GWU) that, as of March 2007, nursing aides would report to work by signing in instead of using a punching clock. The new system was introduced to ensure consistency among staff working on the same pay scales. However, on 28 February, the day before the new system was to be implemented, the health ministry, without any prior consultation with the union, ordered the nursing aides to continue using the traditional punching clock system. In doing so, the ministry broke the agreement reached in January.
Call for industrial action among nursing aides
After several failed attempts to contact the Ministry of Health, GWU directed nursing aides to follow the new agreement and to report to work by signing the attendance sheets. However, as these sheets were not available, GWU’s Government and Public Entities Section ordered industrial action by nursing aides in state hospitals. The protest action included signing the punch card instead of punching it, not washing patients, and abstaining from performing duties outside of the ward to which they were assigned. Moreover, nursing aides who were on duty on 2 March were instructed by the union not to report to work before the attendance sheets were made available, in protest against the ministry’s unilateral decision.
The Ministry of Health condemned GWU’s decision, referring to the union’s actions as ‘irresponsible and unnecessary’, resulting in a negative impact on patients, particularly elderly patients. The ministry stated that the union was doing a ‘disservice to patients by depriving them of such services, and was acting irresponsibly towards its members by ordering industrial action about something that is the management’s responsibility’.
Agreement followed by further protest
After several meetings between GWU’s Government and Public Entities Section, the Ministry of Health and the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), an agreement was reached on 20 March. The decision respected the prior agreement instructing that nursing aides should sign in rather than use the punching clock to report to work. This would ensure greater conformity among the nursing aides of the same pay scale. After this decision was reached, the union suspended its industrial action.
However, on 30 March, GWU’s Government and Public Entities Section registered an industrial dispute once again, as the abovementioned agreement was only followed in Malta and not on the Maltese island of Gozo. The actions issued by GWU for the Gozitan workers were only deemed as ‘symbolic’, as workers were merely instructed to sign on the punch cards to report to work. However, GWU warned that measures would escalate unless the government adhered to the agreement it had signed with the union regarding its members’ working conditions. The union gave the government until 8 April to do so and stated that the Gozitan nursing aides had been discriminated against because of the situation.
In response, the OPM insisted that the rules should not apply to Gozitan workers. However, the union could not understand the government’s position on this issue, given that there had been consensus on the matter, and after making it clear that the agreement being negotiated was valid for all workers. GWU agreed that it was ready to discuss the matter to find a solution, but added that ‘it seems quite pointless to waste time on issues that have already been agreed upon’. On 6 May, GWU once again called off its industrial action after an agreement was reached with the OPM.
Christine Farrugia and Manwel Debono, Centre for Labour Studies