The Malta Union of Midwives & Nurses (MUMN) has registered an industrial dispute with the People and Standards Directorate at the Office of the Prime Minister “over the fact that MUMN Members who work a shift of more than 9 hours were deprived from the proper amount of the Public Holiday Leave that was declared by the Finance Minister in his Budget speech last November.”
In a statement, the union said it has been tackling this issue with the Government for over 4 months but have not reached any agreement.
“From the start MUMN had stated that the Labour Party in its manifesto said that those 4 days Public Holidays that were snatched out from workers by the Nationalist Party in Government in 2005 are to be given back. MUMN has no objection that these 4 days will be given gradually but insisted that the one day allocated this year should be given full and not part.”
The union said that, prior to 2005, workers who worked a shift of, for example, 11 hours, on a Sunday that also happened to be a public holiday, they would have been compensated with 11 hours of leave. “The Government does not want to allocate more than 9.2 hours which over a stretch of 4 days, nearly 8 hours will be lost at the expense of those who work long shifts,” MUMN said.
“On this regard MUMN has informed the Director General of this Directorate that MUMN will be attaching this issue with the other dispute regarding the Sectoral Agreement for Nurses and Midwives. Industrial Directives will be announced next week.”