The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses will not issue industrial action directives, for now, but will give the government “another chance” for it to offer a stronger financial package.

MUMN president Paul Pace said on Wednesday that the union has sent a letter to the Health Minister asking for a meeting to conclude this sectoral agreement. The union did not specify on a timeframe for when it wants this issue to be resolved.

Nearly all nurses and midwives who attended an extraordinary general meeting voted no to the financial package that the government has offered for a new collective agreement during a vote that took place at an extraordinary general conference held Tuesday.

During the Extraordinary General Conference, 97.6% of the nurses and midwives who attended voted against while 1% voted in favour. 1.4% were invalid votes. Present were 804 Nurses & Midwives. This was the largest-ever participation in a General Conference since the union’s foundation in 1996.

During a press conference, Pace said the MUMN chose not to speak up until the EGM as they did not want to influence the nurses’ and midwives’ vote. Instead, the union wanted the nurses and midwives to see the document for themselves.

Pace said that the overall outcome of the proposed agreement was that nurses and midwives will continue to be the least-paid health professionals. “That’s what broke the camel’s back,” Pace said.

Although Health Minister Chris Fearne had said that the nurses and midwives would see an increase of €6,000 in their pay by the end of their agreement, Pace said that this could only be achieved if the nurse or midwife worked 56 hours per week for the whole year.

Pace brought up what Fearne said on TVM’s Xtra on Monday where he used the analogy of a father with four children and said that the father cannot give more attention to one child because they are “screaming more” than the others.

Pace explained how the nurses and midwives were insulted by this comment. Continuing with Fearne’s analogy Pace said that if one child is sick then they deserve a different kind of attention than others.

“There is not a shortage of doctors. There is a shortage of nurses.”

He said that these nurses are not screaming but demanding some respect.

Pace also mentioned how the situation today is that there are three nurses assigned to 24 patients, and sometimes only two are assigned. He said that this is causing a stressful environment for nurses which is causing a lot of nurses to leave and move to a less stressful environment.

“This is why the sectoral agreement is a very important issue, this is going from bad to worse.”

“The hospital is run by nurses, they manage the wards and departments. This sense of responsibility is not reflected here.”

Also, the proposed agreement highlighted that nurses and midwives will be receiving a financial package increase in 2027. He said that the nurses and midwives who voted at the EGM expressed their disappointment with this news.

“We are being treated differently, on a lower scale,” Pace said.

The proposed agreement also included the robotic pill system, which the MUMN had already called a directive against, as the machine used to cause nurses and midwives a lot of stress as the machine did not work well.

Pace also mentioned how nurses and midwives were upset at the mention of digitalisation, as their job is with the “sick not computers.” 

Pace also mentioned how nurses and midwives work a 46-hour week at a flat rate and the union has been asking for these extra hours to be given as overtime. The proposed agreement offers this, but only in the following year.

“Why one year? You’ve been robbing us for many years?” Pace questioned.

Pace said that the union has also been asking for a 10% tax on overtime work, just like the police and other nurses who work in the private sector, but this was not offered in the proposed agreement.

Instead, the government offered a €1,000 allowance at the end of the year for nurses and midwives who worked overtime every day.

Pace also said that the document did not mention a Covid allowance even though nurses and midwives risked their lives during the pandemic.