Some 4,000 nurses from several Maltese health services and homes for the elderly have started wearing black T-shirts to mourn their union being taken to court over directives to address shortage of staff. 

According to the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses’ president Paul Pace, the nurses are wearing black because Malta is ‘the only European country where a union is taken to court for protesting over staff shortages.’

Speaking with Times of Malta, Pace said that instead of finding help from the Health Ministry, the union was given a lawsuit for speaking out in favour of the rights of nurses. 

The nurses’ union was provisionally blocked by a judge last week from continuing industrial action across the entire health service after upholding an application for an injunction filed by health authorities. 

A request for a prohibitory injunction filed by the health ministry was upheld by Mr Justice Ian Spiteri Bailey, ordering the union to stop its action until the case is heard on June 27th. Suspending the action, the union told the nurses to wear black instead of the usual uniform to mourn their profession and to protest at the inaction by authorities. 

The directives issued by the union included not admitting patients to particular wards and a home for the elderly, taking a two-hour break each day at operating theatres and limiting the hours in which nurses could dress wounds. Health authorities refused the pension call and refused the request for nurses’ and midwives’ overtime to be taxed at 10%. 

Pace revealed that 500 nurses left the profession last year. Many were foreign health workers leaving Malta after being offered much better conditions in other countries. Pace said that the directives were not aimed at impacting patients but to highlight the struggles nurses are facing. 

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Photo Source: Paul Pace FB