Union’s outrage at Mount Carmel ‘political transfers’

“Now we are in government” was the reply given to the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin during a meeting over how three Mount Carmel Hospital employees had been singled out for transfer, according to a union official.

UHM health section secretary Gian Paul Gauci told The Sunday Times of Malta the response was given by a hospital official, Reno Grech, in the presence of the new hospital chief operations officer Clifton Grima.

“It showed how rampant political transfers are at the State’s psychiatric institution,” he said.

Mr Gauci said Dr Grima did not reply when asked whether he assumed responsibility for or retracted what Mr Grech had said, prompting the union and the three workers to walk out of the meeting, held two weeks ago.

The three employees involved work in the hospital’s maintenance section and, in accordance with a directive issued by the union, were still reporting for work at Mount Carmel Hospital. One is a technical officer while the other two are tradesmen.

The Director of Employment and Industrial Relations was asked to intervene last week after two of the employees realised that their December salary had shrivelled by around €600. He ordered its reversal since it was illegal, Mr Gauci said, and the withheld amounts were refunded.

Mr Gauci explained that the union became aware about the transfers when it was contacted by the three affected employees about a month ago.

He said he immediately wrote to Dr Grima asking for an explanation. Although at the beginning his reply was that the decision had been taken and that there was nothing to discuss, he eventually agreed to meet to talk about the matter.

Mr Grech, who Mr Gauci said is the hospital’s head cook, attended the meeting saying that he was taking care of the hospital’s management.

“I was asking for reasons. I wanted to know how these three had been chosen. All of a sudden, about half-way through the meeting, Mr Grech stood up, started shouting and swearing in Maltese and said: ‘Now we are in government’.

“I was taken aback so I asked Dr Grima whether he was taking responsibility for this statement or whether he wanted to retract it.

“When he refused to reply, we walked out of the meeting,” Mr Gauci said.

He said he issued directives ordering the employees to continue reporting for work at Mount Carmel Hospital rather than their new workplace with the Primary Healthcare Section.

After the union asked the Director of Labour to look into the reduction in salaries, Mr Gauci said, the health sector’s new director-general for human resources, Joyce Cassar, wrote to the department saying there was no issue and that the matter was to be considered closed.

The three continue reporting for work at the hospital until one of them was in for a surprise when he went to work yesterday.

“Today (yesterday) one of the three was locked out of his office, which had its lock changed. This is completely unacceptable,” he said.

A spokesman for the Health Ministry did not reply to questions sent yesterday for an official reaction to the union’s claims.

The situation at Mount Carmel Hospital worsened since the election with another union, the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses, reporting understaffing because many nurses were transferred to Mater Dei Hospital, mainly because of their political beliefs, leaving the psychiatric hospital with a serious lack of nurses.

This improved once the government had employed a batch of newly-graduated nurses.

mxuereb@timesofmalta.com