The GWU’s Government and Public Entities Section has given the Health Division time till Friday to revise the working hours of nursing aides and health assistants in government hospitals.

It said the health authorities have been dragging their feet over the issue for months. The working hours in the sector were adjusted together with those of nurses and the result was unnecessarily long breaks, so that nursing aides and health assistants were spending more than 40 hours a week at their work place.

Discussions have been held over the past weeks but the authorities were making it difficult for agreement to be reached, the section said.