Doctors' union postpones planned industrial action

The Medical Association of Malta (MAM) has decided to postpone planned industrial action that was due to start today, as a gesture of good will, following a council meeting yesterday.

MAM had announced last month that it would be implementing an industrial action affecting all medical sectors if “pressing issues are not resolved.”

Among these issues, MAM had mentioned the failure to reopen discussions on the MAM-government collective agreement which expired in December last year, as well as reiterating its warning that it would not sign any agreement with the government on the privatisation of healthcare before the office of the auditor general finalised its investigation and the full contract was published. The union had also lamented that the recruitment of specialists in Gozo was not being done in adherence to the current collective agreement.

In a statement issued this morning, MAM said that the planned directives were being rescheduled to 27 March, and that it would be attending a meeting with government officials later today.

MAM added that meetings with all MAM sections will go ahead as planned in the next few days so as to discuss the outcome of the MAM-government meeting and the issue of directives.