The PN has appealed for dialogue with health workers, and for government not to treat their representatives 'like criminals'.

The party issued a statement after the news broke that the First Hall of the Civil Court upheld a request by the Health Minister to issue a provisional injunction against the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses (MUMN)'s planned industrial action. The union had called action after the government would not meet a number of its requests, including taxing nurses at 10% among other things. The MUMN had said: "The legacy of Minister Fearne would be that he is the only Health Minister in the EU to take the nurses and midwives to court, when these same professionals protested on their poor working conditions due to shortage of nurses."

The PN, in a statement, said that the needs of the sick and vulnerable are an absolute priority for the party, "but we condemn the way the Health Minister is treating industrial relations and the workers' representatives like criminals, so much so that they are ready to take them to court."

The PN statement, signed by PN MPs Ivan Castillo and Claudette Buttigieg, read that the party feels that this goes against the spirit of social dialogue and "proves that the PL government does not listen to workers or their needs. This is also proof that the government has abdicated from its responsibility to dialogue with the social partners."

The party said that the Permanent Secretary of the Health Ministry issued a memo regarding a prohibitory injunction against an MUMN directive, that originated after the permanent secretary refused to discuss questions the union felt are pertinent to increase the employment of nurses and start discussions to remove a capping on pensions."

The PN said that the minister continued to ignore the issues presented by the nurses' representatives, "so much so that he didn't even respond to emails they sent."