The Union Haddiema Maghqudin has accused the General Workers Union of reacting unjustly to its work in the health sector.

The agreement signed recently regarding an allowance for care workers came about after more than two years of discussions and industrial action.

The UHM said there was no connection between the cases of care workers and nursing aides. In 1996, talks were being held between the GWU, the UHM and the government regarding nursing aides, and it was the GWU that had signed an agreement saying that nursing aides still doing their course would not be able to progress to scale 13, as would other nursing aides.

The UHM said that because of this anomaly, it had refused to sign the agreement.

The UHM added that it was continuing with discussions regarding nursing aides.