{"id":4197,"date":"2020-11-26T17:18:24","date_gmt":"2020-11-26T16:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/?post_type=article&p=4197"},"modified":"2020-11-26T17:31:50","modified_gmt":"2020-11-26T16:31:50","slug":"il-ftehim-ta-steward-il-uhm-mhux-se-tieqaf-hawn-u-se-tkompli-tiggieled-id-diskriminazzjoni","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/article\/il-ftehim-ta-steward-il-uhm-mhux-se-tieqaf-hawn-u-se-tkompli-tiggieled-id-diskriminazzjoni\/","title":{"rendered":"Buoyed by the Steward agreement UHM will keep fighting workplace discrimination"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The agreement reached by U\u0126M Voice of the Workers for Steward Health Care employees will increase the union\u2019s resolve in the fighting against workplace discrimination in line with the principle of equal pay for equal work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U\u0126M CEO Josef Vella made this pledge in the first reaction to the agreement under which employees of this company running three State hospitals will enjoy the same working conditions of Health Ministry workers with whom they shares the same duties, wards and patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cU\u0126M will continue addressing this issue on various fronts – through legal action in Court such as the Gozo Channel case, industrial action, by bringing cases before the Director of Employment and in important fora such as the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development as well as the Employment Relations Board. At political level, we are making our submissions on this issue as part of the consultations on the electoral manifestos of the political parties contesting the next general election,\u201d Vella said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the case of Steward case, the union had expressed reservations from the very beginning in 2016, when the 30-year concession to run the Gozo General Hospital, St. Luke\u2019s and Karin Grech was granted to Vitals Global Healthcare. It was at the end of 2017 that the concession was transferred to American company Steward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though Steward was branded by the Government as \u201cthe real deal\u201d this did not mean \u201ca good deal\u201d for workers who ended up doing the same job as Government employees albeit with lower wages and inferior conditions, the CEO remarked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that the U\u0126M was the only union refusing to sign an agreement with Steward on the grounds that it could neither commit itself nor its members to something to which it is still not privy. Such stance stems from the fact that the entire agreement between the Government and Steward was never published.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, government finally understood the solution proposed by the union and agreed in principle to bring Steward\u2019s workers at the same level as other professionals in the public service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe next step is for the negotiations to go into the details of how each worker will be assimilated, in a process that must be completed by 31 December of this year. The second step would be for Steward\u2019s workers to start benefiting from this agreement from next year. The case will only be closed when the workers receive their payslips containing the same conditions as their colleagues on Government books,\u201d Vella said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The told us such agreement was impossible\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gian Paul Gauci, assistant director at U\u0126M Voice of the Workers who was actively involved in the negotiations, expressed satisfaction that this agreement was made despite scepticism from certain quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere were other unions who had warned that the kind of deal the U\u0126M was asking for was impossible to get. However, time has proved us right because our resolve meant that we secured this \u2018impossible deal\u2019 despite the difficulties we faced,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The breakthrough was also difficult because Government did not immediately understand that there was discrimination going on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The agreement reached by U\u0126M Voice of the Workers for Steward Health Care employees will increase the union\u2019s resolve in the fighting against workplace discrimination in line with the principle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":4198,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"spay_email":""},"issuem_issue":[193],"issuem_issue_categories":[9],"issuem_issue_tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.8.8","language":"en","enabled_languages":["mt","en"],"languages":{"mt":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/4197"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4197"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/4197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4200,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/4197\/revisions\/4200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue?post=4197"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_categories?post=4197"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_tags?post=4197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}