Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2001, published 90th ILC session (2002)

Nursing Personnel Convention, 1977 (No. 149) - Malta (Ratification: 1990)

The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government in its reports.

It notes the information about the dispute between the nursing staff of Mount Carmel hospital, supported by three unions, the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses (MUMN), the General Workers Union (GWU) and the Union Haddiema Maghqudin (UHM), and the hospital management, in the course of 2000. It notes that Public Services International (PSI) sought the assistance of the International Labour Office (ILO) in settling the dispute about the management’s decision to redeploy nursing staff within the hospital in order to redress an imbalance in the numbers in the various services. The hospital management, supported by the Health Division of the Maltese Government, took the view that the deployment of staff was an absolute prerogative of management, whereas the unions considered that any decision regarding employment or working conditions could be taken only after negotiations with the unions, as prescribed in the conclusions of the ILO Joint Meeting on Human Resource Development in Health Sector Reforms, held in September 1998. The Committee notes that, in response to a letter he received from PSI, the Director General of the International Labour Office wrote to the Maltese Ministry of Health on 10 November 2000 offering the ILO’s assistance in resolving the dispute. The Committee notes that in his reply of 28 November 2000 the Minister stated that the cause of the dispute was the unions’ resistance to the deployment exercise with the result that an unprecedented total strike was declared by the three unions without the provision of emergency services. Noting the subsequent correspondence between the MUMN and the Maltese Minister of Health, and between the ILO and the PSI and International Council of Nurses (ICN), the Committee observes that, in an email message of 26 March 2001, the MUMN informed the ILO that a "final and definite agreement" had been reached by the MUMN and the Health Division, thus putting an end to the dispute. The Committee therefore asks the Government to provide information in its next report about the content of the agreement and particularly on the conditions of work of the nursing staff at Mount Carmel hospital since the resolution of the dispute.

The Committee also asks the Government to provide information on the following points.

Article 6 of the Convention. Further to its previous comments, the Committee notes the information that the conditions of work of nursing personnel are equivalent to those of other workers in the public sector with regard to the areas covered by this Article. It notes that the Government’s report refers to the national legislation and to agreements between the Government and workers’ unions, but does not specify the laws or regulations adopted to give effect to this Article of the Convention. To enable the Committee better to assess the consistency of the national legislation with the provisions of the Convention, the Government is asked to send with its next report any documents, either general or specific, concerning nursing personnel which have not already been sent to the Office, such as copies of laws, regulations, collective agreements, administrative instructions, etc. The Committee observes that the information supplied by the Government does not allow comparison between the conditions of work of nursing personnel and those of workers in other sectors. The Committee therefore requests the Government to give specific instances showing equality between nursing personnel and workers in other sectors in respect of employment and working conditions. Furthermore, no mention is made of nurses’ working conditions in the private sector. The Committee refers to the Government’s first report, dated 1993, stating that there were no private hospitals in Malta, and asks the Government to state whether this is still the case.

Article 7. The Committee refers to its general observation of 1990, repeated in 1994, in which it stressed the need to take measures to adapt the legislation on health and safety at work to the particular risk of accidental exposure to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) among nursing personnel. In this respect, the Committee also suggested to consult with nursing personnel on such measures. Having not received any information from the Government on this matter, the Committee asks the Government to provide detailed information on the measures taken in pursuance of its recommendation, based on Article 7 of the Convention.

Part V of the report reform. The Committee notes the information in the Government’s report to the effect that there are no official statistics on nursing personnel and their relation to the population. It hopes that the Government will shortly be in a position to gather such data and communicate them to the Office, and in the meantime requests the Government to continue to provide general information on the manner in which the Convention is applied in practice, and to notify any difficulties encountered in its implementation.