The UĦM - Voice of the Workers has ordered industrial action at Karin Grech, St Luke’s and Gozo General Hospital – the hospitals operated by Steward Health Care – after they said that the government had failed to keep its word.

The union claimed that the government had failed to keep its promise to transfer Steward Health Care employees onto its books by the 1st of January this year.

“Consequently, as of Monday February 1, professionals working in these hospitals are neither seeing new patients nor doing follow-up visits unless they are urgent cases”, the union said.

UĦM said that when it won recognition of Steward’s workers in 2019, it had immediately demanded that these works be transferred on government’s books. Such request was made since these employees were getting paid less than similar professionals employed by the government, despite doing the same job at the same workplace.

“Last November, government accepted the UĦM’s request after the latter had resorted to industrial action. The government had agreed to absorb these workers and give them equal pay and conditions with effect from 1 January 2019. It also committed itself to complete the transfer of these employees by the end of December”, the union said.

However, they said that none of this happened.

The union said that it had given the government a one-week extension in the second week of January 2021 to make the necessary changes, but said that not only had the government failed to keep its word, it did not even reply to correspondence sent by the union.

It is as a result of this that the union has declared a fresh industrial dispute and issued directives.

“UĦM hopes that the government listens to these workers and delivers on its promise to treat professionals who have been at the forefront of the fight against Covid-19 with the dignity they deserve”, it concluded.