UHM threatens sympathy strikes over Sedqa dispute

The Union Haddiema Maghqudin has warned that the industrial action at Sedqa, the national agency against drug and alcohol abuse, could take on "a more serious and wider dimension", spreading to all government entities and the public sector.

The union said it would wait until Friday for the government to change its position and give the deserved increments to Sedqa employees.

Failing this, action would escalate and spread to the other public entities and the public sector, including health departments, the UHM said. Sympathy strikes would be held in various workplaces.

A steering action committee would, over the weekend, decide how best to handle the situation, the union said.

The UHM yesterday held a meeting with its three executive committees, which unanimously agreed to step up and spread action to all government entities and the public sector if the government refused to budge on the issue of the increments.

It appeared that the government had "ulterior motives" concerning the civil servants and that Sedqa was considered to be a "test case", the union said.

The collective agreements of other workplaces, including Gozo Channel, the Malta Transport Authority and the Freeport Corporation, had expired and been left on the backburner for many years, the UHM said.

The union registered an industrial dispute with Sedqa some weeks ago saying the management had arbitrarily decided to stop passing on increments to its employees - an "unacceptable" move for the union.

Outlining the background, it explained that the Sedqa collective agreement had expired in December 2003 and that the increments had been passed onto the workers last year. For some reason, however, they were stopped this year.

The collective agreements for civil servants - 30,000 workers - were currently being negotiated, the union said, pointing out that four of the government's proposals were unacceptable and included a three-year moratorium on the increments for civil servants.