UĦM announces industrial action among Steward Healthcare workers

UĦM Voice of the Workers has taken industrial action at Karin Grech, St Luke’s and Gozo General Hospital after the government failed to transfer Steward Healthcare employees to its payroll by 1 January this year.

As of Monday 1 February, professionals working in these hospitals will not be seeing new patients nor doing follow-up visits except in urgent cases.

In 2019, UĦM had demanded for these workers to be transferred on government payroll, as employees were receiving a lower pay compared to government-employed professionals, despite carrying out the same job at the same workplace.

Government had accepted the UĦM’s request last November after the union resorted to industrial action. The government agreed to absorb these workers and give them equal pay and conditions, and committed itself to complete the transfer of these employees by the end of December.

READ ALSO: Government to absorb Steward Healthcare workers – UĦM

However, government failed to honour this agreement in time. In the second week of January, UĦM gave government a one-week extension to make the necessary changes.

"Once again, government failed to keep its word and it did not even reply to correspondence sent by the union," UĦM stated.