Union mulling industrial action over Mater Dei Hospital's discriminatory salaries

The General Workers Union plans to order industrial action at Mater Dei Hospital, after government failed to keep its end of an agreement to eradicate discriminatory salaries at Mater Dei Hospital between directly-employed public workers and sub-contracted private employees.

Group 4 Securitas (G4S) has been a service provider to Mater Dei Hospital since 2008 in its provision of clerical services, receptionists, security guards and parkers, but these workers do not receive the same salary as those recruited directly by the Health Department.

According to a union spokesperson, the subcontracted full-timers are now losing between €10 to €20 a week because their salaries have not yet been equalised.

"These workers were prommised to receive equal salaries. But this promise has not been upheld," the GWU's spokesman told MaltaToday.

The spokesman said an agreement between the union and the health ministry was reached last February. "The Health Authorities agreed with our request to eradicate discriminatory salaries... they told us they disagreed with such discrimination," he said.

But the salary adjustments failed to materialize since the tender for the sub-contracted services at the hospital - that was planned for April - remained on the backburner.

With regards to the parkers, the tender was issued and then withdrawn following the public car parks privatisation saga.

In July, the Authorities confirmed that there were "some hitches" but indicated that the tenders were ready for publication. The spokesman said the union had persistently urged government to either issue the tenders or adjust the workers' salaries within their existing work contract.

The GWU accused government of "ignoring the matter", while the company providing the services kept referring the union to the government.

"Meanwhile, the workers are providing an excellent service and G4S continues to receive its profit margins. No one is ready to eliminate this discrimination because those providing and receiving the service are not affected: it is just the workers who are at the losing end of this problem," the spokesman said.

Four months ago, Health Minister Joe Cassar informed the union that the ministry's Central Procurement and Supplies Unit had drawn up the criteria for a tender to be issued with the different salaries for each post.

The documentation of the tender was sent to the Contracts Department for vetting and publication together with a request to extend the current agreement to ensure service continuity.

Minister Cassar assured the GWU that the Health Department was doing everything possible to speed up the tender adjudication procedures.