UHM registers industrial dispute to paramedics

Union Haddiema Maghqudin will be ordering industrial actions to commence from next Thursday to all paramedics.

The Health Services Section within the Malta Workers Union (UHM) will be ordering industrial actions to all paramedics which will enter into action from next Thursday 28 June 2012.

For the past year and a half, the Union had been discussing with the Health Division so that the working conditions of the paramedics would better reflect their work. Unfortunately, it seems that the Division, which the Union had requested on various occasions for its position on such proposals, never gave its position and the meetings have stalled since then.

For this reason, the Union has been meeting with the paramedics who were informed that the Union cannot but resort to industrial actions.

The Paramedic's umbrella group (now called Allied Health Professionals) is made up of various professions, namely: Radiographers, Audiologists, Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Podologists, Medical Laboratory Scientists, Dental Technologists, Dental Hygienists, Speech language pathologists, Orthoptist and Neurophysiology Technologist.

Each of the profession will be issued with a number of industrial actions, such as refraining from using communication devices, no work in the community is done, no new outpatients and CDAU cases are seen and routine tests by GP's and Health Centres such as checking of cholesterol levels will not be processed. The Union is also making sure that emergency cases and life-threatening situations are to be avoided in these actions.

For this reason, the Union is appealing the public to phone the hospital or health centres to check if they will be affected by these actions.

The Union believes that avoidance to industrial action is possible, should the Health Division be in a position to give its counter-proposals to the same Union.