No agreement was sought in a two-hour
meeting between the government and the General Workers Union (GWU) tackling
industrial actions ordered to nursing aides in all Maltese hospitals and health
centres. The industrial actions were suspended for three weeks on Tuesday to serve as a cooling-off period in the light of pending
issues concerning health workers’ jobs.
Despite reaching no agreement, both sides
described the meeting as “cordial”. Further meetings are expected to take place in
the coming days.
The industrial
actions ordered to almost 900 nursing aides, health assistants, care workers
and assistant care workers in all Maltese and Gozitan hospitals and health
centres, affects 3,000 patients.
The actions began on
the 3rd August after the GWU was informed that the Division and the Office of
the Prime Minister were only prepared to consider making changes to the number
of working hours and would not change their stance on the workers’ premium
allowances and the jobs' scale 13.
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