The Malta Union of Nurses and Midwives have given the government an ultimatum, to either sort out new sectoral agreements or face industrial action.

Secretary General Colin Galea, who was speaking at a press conference in front of the Birkirkara Health Centre, highlighted the burnout currently experienced by the workforce due to a shortage of about 500 individuals across all state run hospitals, while institutions such as St Vincent de Paul are about 140 nurses short.

This, Galea explained, has a negative impact on the patient, and insisted that the current sectoral agreements meant that the hospitals could not attract nurses and midwives from around Europe to work in Maltese hospitals.

In March and April of this year, MUMN held its first and second meeting with the Industrial Relations Unit, which falls under the Permanent Secretary within OPM, where it presented its proposals for new sectoral agreements. The current agreement was signed roughly five years ago.

Since then, there has been no other meeting with the unit.

Following the general election, MUMN called for these meetings to continue, but did not receive any reply.

The MUMN has now presented three specific conditions to the government, which need to be agreed to by Sunday 22 October.

The first is the written guarantee that the meeting will discuss the counter proposals from the government. The second, is a schedule of appointments must be created with the view of having a new sectoral agreement by the end of the year.

The union is also seeking the written guarantee that through a legal notice in Parliament, the Specialist Framework for Nurses and Midwives be implemented by the end of November.