Union warning

There is a "total deadlock" in discussions between the Union Haddiema Maghqudin and government representatives on a sectoral agreement for paramedics and health inspectors, the secretary of the union's health services section, John M. Briffa, said.

As from Monday, paramedics and health inspectors will not be making use of communication facilities, including telephones, faxes, e-mails and pagers, unless any developments take place, he said.

If the government did not take action on the issue, the union was ready to step up action and Mr Briffa told The Times he did not rule out calling a sympathy strike among other health workers members of the union.

Mr Briffa explained that four meetings were held between union representatives and the government to discuss the sectoral agreement for that category of workers. The agreement being discussed should have come into force last year, he said. However, the meetings yielded no results, he said.

Mr Briffa said the main dispute revolved around the financial package for paramedics and health inspectors. He said the union believed that since the majority of this section of workers were graduates their pay should reflect this.

He said there were no other meetings in the pipeline.