Steward Health Care Malta has denied the claims made by Voice for the Workers (UHM) on Friday regarding any illegalities on sick leave payments as the situation described by the union is relevant only to Karin Grech Hospital.

In a statement published on Saturday, Steward Health Care Malta strongly denied any of the claims made by UHM and wishes to clarify that the union’s statements includes ‘various inaccuracies and unfounded allegations.’

Steward Health Care explained that the situation described by the union is incorrect, as the particular situation is relevant only to Karin Grech Hospital government employees and not to those working in other Steward-managed hospitals like the Gozo General Hospital.

It added that the matter pertinent to Karin Grech Hospital is the result of years of government legacy practices, and is not related to the taking over of the management by Steward Malta.

On Friday, UHM claimed that government employees working at the three state hospitals managed by Steward Health Care are not being paid for their sick leave in full which is in breach of the employment law.

The union stated that “whenever an employee is on sick leave for a stretch of four or more days, they are only being paid for the first three days. Consequently, in case of a prolonged illness employees are suffering a deducation in salary.”

Steward Health Care Malta explained that the direction on how to pay for sick leave in Karin Grech Hospital was given by the Department of Social Security and this has been the case for many years. Karen Grech Hospital managament is only responsible for the computation of salaries, with the funding being provided by the government, through its own account.

In addition, once the Department of Social Security pays for sick leave, following the first three days, any money remaining in the Karin Grech Hospital salary accounts stay with the government and not with Steward Malta.

The statement read that Steward submits monthly reports for scrutiny by the Ministry for Health who has full visibility of payroll processes and all rights to audit Steward.

“There is no possibility for Steward to retain for itself money that the government has transferred for the payroll of government employees.”

Steward Malta has said that it cannot accept that the union makes such claims which are unfounded and reserves its right to take legal action in relation to such allegations.