Nurses, midwives to take industrial action

The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses last night issued a series of directives which take effect tomorrow morning after the government failed to submit counter-proposals on a new collective agreement.

The directives, issued to the union's 2,000 members, will affect all state hospitals - St Luke's, Mount Carmel, St Vincent De Paul, Boffa and Gozo General - and eight health centres.

There has been an impasse in negotiations with the government for the past few weeks and the union felt it now had no alternative but to issue the directives, which were announced by MUMN president Rudolph Cini to a packed hall at the Catholic Institute.

The directives were received with loud applause.

The union's action committee will be meeting on Friday to analyse the impact of its directives, review the situation and decide whether it should take further action.

In response to what it described as the government's lack of goodwill, all the midwives and nurses have been ordered to wear a black T-shirt as a symbolic sign of mourning.

Union members have also been ordered not to use computers, since this was the work of ward clerks, and nurses should focus on patients due to a shortage of staff.

Other directives order midwives and nurses not to do any paperwork or carry out errands outside their ward except those related to nursing duties.

Nurses have also been ordered not to withdraw any blood from patients at the hospitals - though St Luke's Hospital is excluded from this directive.

The union said it was being extremely careful to ensure that its directives did not affect patients.

Union general secretary Colin Galea said the union could not understand why the government was dragging its feet when the MUMN had worked hard to submit its proposals for the collective agreement, which expired in June, early in the year, amending them twice to accommodate the country's financial situation.

"We appreciate the current financial situation, but the government can only gain by establishing a package which can address the current problems in the sector and attract new people to the job," he said.

Mr Galea said the union's concerns on the working conditions of midwives and nurses was more of a problem than the salary - one nurse was doing the job of two.

Mr Galea said that with the new hospital on the doorstep, the union estimated it needed at least 30 more midwives and 220 nurses over and above the present complement.

The union's four main requests to the government include an early retirement scheme which was negotiable; a framework of specialisation in the nursing field; a revision of salaries, and an allowance for professional development.