Updated at 8pm with MUMN's reaction

A judge has blocked planned industrial action at the Gozo General Hospital over the employment of foreign nurses instead of transferring Gozitan ones working in Malta.

In a decree handed down on Monday, Mr Justice Toni Abela upheld a warrant of prohibitory injunction requested by Steward Health Care Malta against the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses which had given notice of industrial action over the employment of foreign nurses. 

The nurses’ union had claimed that the healthcare operator was employing foreign nurses at the Gozo General Hospital, instead of transferring Gozitan nurses who were working in Malta to the hospital. It claimed that Steward had broken a long-standing practice by ignoring an official list which allows Gozitan nurses to know when it is their turn to be transferred to Gozo.

The union had claimed that Gozitan nurses felt they were treated like second-class citizens when foreign workers were employed at the Gozo Hospital instead of them.

MUMN president Paul Pace addressing the media on the steps of Castille with Gozitan nurses in support

But Steward denied this, insisting it had no problem employing Gozitan nurses, provided these were released by the Health Ministry due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Steward said it had proposed releasing 10 nurses from the Gozo list -  the equivalent number of third-country nurses it had to engage - in agreement with ministry and union, to make up the necessary staffing levels.

These 10 nurses would be over and above the eight earmarked for replacement.

In the interim, the current third-country nationals already recruited by Steward would remain at Gozo General Hospital until the 18 nurses were released to Gozo General Hospital. They would then be transferred to Karin Grech Hospital.

The same argument was made in court, which noted that the authorisation of the Health Ministry was necessary for Gozitan nurses to be released to Gozo. The transfer of the Gozitan nurses did not depend on Steward Malta. 

The court also noted that on the day the industrial action was called, Steward Malta had communicated with the union that it had not received an indication from the ministry when Gozitan nurses would be released.

Mr Justice Abela, therefore, upheld the request for a warrant and blocked the union from ordering any industrial action related to this issue. 

MUMN vows to re-issue directives 

In its reaction, the MUMN said the court upheld the injunction simply because the transfer of nurses from Malta to Gozo fell under the responsibility of the Health Ministry and not Steward's. 

When the injunction was issued, although the process for the transfer of nurses from Malta to Gozo had started, the process was not yet completed, it said.

But since July 1, 10 Gozitan nurses were deployed in Gozo but the foreign nationals employed there were not transferred to Malta. 

MUMN said it will keep insisting that there should never be any foreign nurses working in Gozo whilst there are still Gozitan nurses working in Malta.

The union said it will request a meeting to resolve this issue. If the foreign nurses are retained in Gozo, it aid it will re-issue directives.

"It is evident that even now with the transfer of Gozitan nurses being completed, Steward Health Care broke the agreement and the practise of replacing the foreign nurses by Gozitan nurses. MUMN would like to make it clear that it will not rest until all foreign nurses are replaced by the Gozitans," MUMN president Paul Pace said in a statement.