The government needs to spend more to improve the pay and allowances of the nurses it employs because salaries are lower than in comparable grades in the private sector and not even sufficient for the retention of foreigners who come here to work, the MUMN said on Sunday.

In a statement it however disputed a claim reported in MaltaToday that its demands would cost the government €130m annually and said the article was aimed at demotivating its members and putting the union in a bad light.  

The union said that in its first proposals, the government had come up with a package worth a measly €4 million and was “worthless tissue paper”.

The government subsequently suggested a package of new allowances worth €40m for the 4400 nurses and midwives working in state hospitals.

It still resulted to the union that the end result would still be lower than what other healthcare professions got, in Malta.

The MUMN said it demanded at least another €30 million to "hopefully encourage young people to join the nursing profession and retain the existing nursing workforce including the foreign nurses."

The government is due to give its reaction on March 20. 

The union said it was contesting the government's claim that its proposals for higher overtime pay and allowances would cost €130m because the majority of nurses and midwives do not work overtime. Its pension incentives to encourage nurses to work until turning 67 was a voluntary scheme which again would not be taken up by all nurses. 

The various contracts being proposed to raise the number of nurses in the ward were also voluntary schemes.

"If the government truly wants to address the huge shortage of nurses and midwives, the salaries and the working conditions must improve as other countries in the EU are doing," the union said.  

"MUMN cannot accept that where Steward was involved, money was not a problem and not an issue but where nurses and midwives are involved, the government uses the hard hand approach," it added.