GWU hits out at government and UHM over agreement

The General Workers’ Union is up in arms against what they claim is an injustice perpetrated against Nursing Aides and Health Assistants, by the government and the Union Haddiema Maghqudin over the allowance issue for health workers.

The GWU yesterday claimed that the UHM accepted a government proposal to give a reduced allowance to this category of health workers. The GWU said it cannot accept a situation where a section of workers are treated in an inferior way even though their working conditions are the same as those of other employees.

The majority of Nursing Aides and Health Assistants are members of the GWU and the union had asked government to reach an agreement with it as regards these two health sections.

However, government reached an agreement with the UHM and irked the rival union. On Monday the GWU ordered industrial action and said that it could not recognise the agreement reached between the UHM and government on behalf of Nursing Aides and Health Assistants.

Lashing out at the UHM, the GWU said that the rival union had used the same disruptive tactics during the budget 2000 campaign and the deployment of nurses at Mount Carmel Hospital.