If foreign nurses are paid one cent more than local nurses, there will be trouble, MUMN Secretary General Colin Galea told the Malta independent.

The MUMN Secretary General said that the Health Ministry has already assured that they would be paid equally, when called and asked about a letter he sent to the said Ministry. The letter, he said, was a reminder to the Health Authorities not to pay foreign nurses higher salaries.

In the letter, the Union made reference to adverts abroad by the Health Department, attempting to attract foreign nurses to Malta with an approximately €30,000 annual gross salary.

“I would like to inform you that a substantial amount of staff nurses with a degree, in their first year working, do not receive a gross salary of €30,000. As such, if the Department employs staff nurses with a degree for a different salary to those received by Maltese staff nurses in their first year, the MUMN will order industrial action in hospitals and other places of work”.

“If foreign staff nurses with a diploma are employed, they must be paid on salary scale 12, with the same gross salary as local nurses”.

Mr Galea stressed the word approximately used in the foreign adverts, stating again that this email just served as a reminder to the authorities.