The Industrial action that came after discrimination against Environmental Health Officers (EHO) has been lifted by the UHM after multiple talks between the union and the Health Ministry.

This dispute came about because the government refused to honours aspects of the sectoral agreement that was signed in October of last year, which related to the progression of officers.

The UHM declared an industrial dispute, on August 3, which affected port health processing of imports and exports, investigations regarding food and environmental complaints, applications for the certification of catering establishments, weekly bathing water reports and communications.

The UHM said that the Health Ministry could have resolved this dispute months ago because various solutions had already been shared with them. Consequently, this led it to declare an industrial dispute.

It was only once the UHM escalated matters that the Ministry took notice. The Ministry acknowledged the UHM’s complaint that some EHOs were being discriminated against, during a meeting on August 9. Following this, they took on board the union’s solutions which had already been tabled last month.

The UHM Voice of Workers finally stated that it hopes that the Ministry will be forthcoming to avoid unnecessary escalation of disputes in the interest of employees and the public health services in general.