Time and time again UHM Voice of the Workers has had to resort to industrial action in the face of cases whereby the employer is running roughshod over workers’ fundamental rights. The health sector is arguably the most sensitive and controversial sectors of all. It affects patients, relatives but also the much flaunted front liners.  

In recent years this union has come across multiple instances of employees being discriminated against such as workers getting paid less than their colleagues despite doing the same job with the same patients in the same workplace. UHM was also forced to escalate matter as at times the government would initially act with complete impunity and refuse to engage at all in social dialogue when workers flag their concerns or try to seek redress through the proper channels. It is in this context that UHM starts pondering on industrial action as in reality there is no other option left. However, if this course of action is sought, any directives are issued gradually in order to ensure that if there is collateral damage, this is as minimum as possible. Yet, more often than not the government would neither budge nor show any inclination to hold serious talks.

Last February, UHM stepped up industrial action involving around 1,300 health sector employees some of whom had been left waiting for two years to start talks over a new collective agreement such as the emergency ambulance responders. In other cases, employees such as Allied Healthcare professionals were not getting what they had been agreed in writing in their collective agreement.  Elsewhere, Steward Health Care employees were initially getting paid less than their colleagues on government books only to be promised in writing that they would be treated at par with them as from the start of this year. Yet, this commitment made in writing has not materialised.

Hence, the decision to escalate industrial action was no knee-jerk reaction but one which had been brewing for months. Nonetheless, UHM took great care to ensure that cancer patients, Covid-19 vaccination and treatment and life threatening cases would not be affected. It was only at this stage that government changed tack…unfortunately not by seeking dialogue but by taking the union to court in an attempt to muzzle the aggrieved employees. Such conduct speaks volumes on the level of social dialogue in Malta at the moment.

This is why UHM Voice of the Workers refutes accusations being made by the Commissioner for Health at the Office of the Ombudsman who said that unions are using patients as “pawns”. Such remarks are utterly unfair and unfounded. Contrary to what the commissioner claimed UHM’s actions never placed patients’ life at risk.  On the other hand, the biggest risk being faced is that in the near future Malta’s entire healthcare system will undergo a brain drain. There is a limit which these employees can take. What future can they aspire to in a climate of intimidation in which any attempt to seek redress or to fight for your right will end in court? Who will shoulder responsibility if the younger generation starts snubbing a career in healthcare feeling they do not get the respect they merit?  UHM never shied away from holding talks but the principle of social dialogue may only succeed if it is underpinned by good faith and the workers welfare.

Rather than venting his frustration and pointing fingers to the union, the health commissioner should channel his energies to the authorities who are the ones to blame for the situation. 

Has the Commissioner asked himself why all of these disputes are happening within the public healthcare service? Did he ever ask why the Health Ministry slapped two separate unions with a prohibitory injunction within a month? Is the Commissioner asking himself why the complement of ambulances at Mater Dei Hospitals was still below the minimum despite a court order to stop the industrial action? Is he looking if the lack of quality service is exclusively due to industrial action or otherwise? Is the Health Commissioner within the Office of the Ombudsman bold enough to stand up and prevent the government from steam rolling ahead including on his institution or is he toothless? These are some questions on which he should ponder.