Updated 12.30pm, adds Steward Healthcare statement

The nurses' union has accused the government of treating its Gozitan members like second class citizens as it refused to stop Steward Healthcare from employing foreign workers at the Gozo Hospital. 

Addressing the media on the steps of Castille, Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses President Paul Pace called on Robert Abela to intervene.

On Sunday, the courts provisionally upheld a warrant of prohibitory injunction filed by Steward Healthcare to stop planned industrial action by the MUMN.

Pace said on Wednesday there were 100 vacancies for nurses in Gozo but instead of transferring Gozitan workers from Mater Dei Hospital, Steward Healthcare employed 10 Indian and Pakistani nurses. 

Pace said there was "collusion" between the government and Steward Healthcare which was being allowed to run roughshod over everything and everyone. 

He said there was a transparent transfer list for transfers from Malta to Gozo but Steward ignored this and directly employed foreign staff. This was disrespectful towards the hard-working Gozitan nurses. 

The union proposed that the foreign workers are employed at Karin Grech rehabilitation hospital, where there are also vacancies, so that the Gozitan workers could be transferred to the Gozo Hospital. However, Steward refused this suggestion. 

"This is not about racism and neither is it a partisan issue but we want the Prime Minister to intervene so that these Gozitan nurses are not discriminated against," he said. 

MUMN said it expected Steward to prevent the suffering of Gozitans who had no choice but to travel to Malta daily for work or to study. 

“Employing foreign nurses to work at GGH is an insult and shows great lack of respect not just towards Gozitan nurses but towards all people who live in Gozo. It shows that Steward is just a cold-blooded organisation.”

Steward says it has been requesting deployment of nurses to Gozo since March

In a statement later, Steward categorically denied it did not want to deploy Gozitan nurses working in Malta to Gozo.

It said that, since March, and until Tuesday afternoon, it had reiterated its request to the Health Ministry to release nurses from the Gozo transfer list of nurses for deployment to Gozo.

To date, it had not received any communication from the ministry to confirm that Gozitan nurses could be released to work at Gozo General Hospital, it said. 

As part of its proposals to the Health Ministry, Steward on Tuesday said it would consider immediately withdrawing all legal proceedings in relation to the injunction, subject to an agreement being reached with the ministry and the union.

In a letter sent to the ministry on Tuesday, Steward Health Care said that in the context of the current discussions, the interests of its patients remained Steward’s sole focus.

The letter added that adequate staffing to maintain full COVID-19 capabilities mandated by government and safety of patients and staff was at the heart of the dispute.

Steward said in the letter that MUMN’s position, which came as a complete surprise, jeopardised those goals without any workable or constructive solutions being proposed. 

In the best interests of its patients, Steward said it was reserving its right to take further legal action against the union in relation to the directives announced on Tuesday in reaction to the injunction. 

Such directives had clearly been issued in an attempt to circumvent the court order and were seriously impacting several healthcare services in Gozo, which Steward was legally and morally obliged to provide.

Steward proposed to the ministry the release of 10 nurses from the Gozo list, being the equivalent number of third-country nurses Steward 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 currently 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.

This is said, was subject to the union withdrawing all its directives with immediate effect.

PN expresses support with nurses

In a statement, the Nationalist Party expressed its support with Gozitan nurses working in Malta.

It called for the government's immediate intervention to ensure that vacancies in Gozo were filled by Gozitans.