Nurses’ union suspends industrial action, announces member vote

The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses has announced it will suspend industrial action from Thursday morning.

MUNM will ask its members to vote on the government’s pay proposals it already rejected last week.

The voting will be held at an extraordinary general conference expected to take place on Tuesday, 18 April.

This was announced on Wednesday just before a scheduled mediation meeting called by the Health Ministry, which the union had called “useless”.

The government said it would be taking all necessary steps against the industrial actions as they “no longer have a legitimate basis”.

Health Commissioner Raymond Galea urged both sides to resolve their ongoing dispute to protect patient care.

Ongoing dispute over new sectoral agreement

The dispute concerns a new deal for a sectoral agreement between the nursing union and the government.

In ongoing negotiations, MUNM and the government have yet to come to an agreement over the conditions, particularly the salaries of nurses and midwives.

The union’s directives to nurses at all public hospitals led to delayed surgeries among other inconveniences for patients.