Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1494707
2 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 12 MARCH 2023 NEWS Thank you... for having bought this newspaper The good news is that we're not raising the price of our newspaper We know times are still hard, but we have pledged to keep giving our readers quality news they deserve, without making you pay more for it. So thank you, for making it your MaltaToday Support your favourite newspaper with a special offer on online PDF subscriptions. Visit bit.ly/2X9csmr or scan the QR code Subscriptions can be done online on agendabookshop.com Same-day delivery at €1 for orders up to 5 newspapers per address. Subscribe from €1.15 a week Same-day print delivery from Miller Distributors mt CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 While the union threatened widespread industrial action as from Monday over lacklustre counter-offers from the health ministry, MaltaToday is informed that the union has also demand- ed that nursing pensions are no longer capped. Health ministry insiders balked at the demand, saying the knock- on effect could be cataclysmic for both the health budget as well as the national pension system. The union's demands will un- doubtedly affect other sectoral agreements for the unions in the medical sector, a factor that has raised the eyebrows of health and finance ministry officials. For example, the MUMN said it wants tax on overtime to be reduced to 10%, however it also wants 6.6 hours from its legal- ly-mandated 46-hour week, to be treated as overtime – an average of €15 an hour. MaltaToday un- derstands that, without the tax impact, this would cost over €14 million over the course of five years. The nurses also demanded pay on Saturday at a higher rate, be- lieved to cost over €6 million over the agreement's period; a one-time COVID allowance of €3 million each year; special duty al- lowances that could cost upwards of €25 million over five years; €10 million in new allowances for various nursing grades; and some €35 million alone in "lack of staff complement" allowances – that is, an allowance for nurses suffer- ing the brunt of the NHS not be- ing at full complement in nursing. The latter is expected to be a sticking point in negotiations, given MUMN boss Paul Pace's previous employment as a con- sultant to then health minister Konrad Mizzi on 'systems and mechanisms to engage nurses', where he spent three years on a €58,000 salary. According to European Com- mission data, Malta has 4,131 nurses and 254 midwives, apart from 4,213 caring personnel – putting Malta at a mid-range ranking in the EU in terms of nurses per 100,000 population. Total emoluments to health ministry and healthcare staff, according to the latest Budget estimates, were €382 million in total for doctors, nurses, allied healthcare, clerical and engineer- ing staff. Industrial action suspended Malta's nursing union was plan- ning to take wide-ranging indus- trial action starting Monday 13 March, in its battle with govern- ment to extract sectoral conces- sions, until a counter-offer to- wards the end of the week calmed the waters for both sides. Paul Pace said the MUMN's 32-page list of demands was met with a short counter-pro- posal which he first branded as "worthless tissue paper", saying he would not sit down for talks on a proposal that cherry-picks on demands. MUMN secretary-general Paul Pace said his union has 30 fi- nancial proposals, but the health ministry has replied to the un- ion's demands with two pages and "zero proposals". "Not even one new incentive or new proposal in favour of the nurses and the midwives was put forward by the government," the union council told members in a communication on industrial action. "No consideration was given on the hardship, the stress and the challenges, the risks and the added responsibilities which all nurses and midwives pass through on a daily basis," the un- ion said. Pace accused the government of showing "no empathy" for the work of nurses and midwives during the COVID pandemic. "Countless nurses and midwives (with their families)... contracted COVID and could have died dur- ing their line of work." Nursing union driving a hard bargain Bottle refunds: give public 80% for water purification, says consumer rights group THE Association for Consumer Rights has said Malta's Beverage Container Return Scheme might be prodding consumers to recycle single-use-beverage containers, but was not reducing use of sin- gle-use beverage containers in the first place. "ACR Malta urges the author- ities to make it a priority to in- centivise the public to reduce sin- gle-use-beverage containers. For example, to help the public trust tap water quality, ACR encour- ages the authorities to regularly publicise the test results of tap water quality in various parts of Malta, illustrating how these re- sults compare with water quality parameters set by the EU," said ACR president Pauline Azzopar- di. Azzopardi also said the gov- ernment should increase the subsidy on home water purifi- cation systems so as to reduce single-use-beverage container waste. "Consumers would be less inclined to purchase water in sin- gle-use-containers if they have a water purification system at home," Azzopardi said, calling for an increase in the 15.25% subsidy to at least 80% for home systems that have no water reject waste. "A mere grant of about €120 would enable a household to cov- er the costs of such a water puri- fication system for a whole year. ACR also said the BCRS should pay out in cash instead of vouch- ers, and reported that many bot- tles are being rejected by the ma- chines for no apparent reason. "To claim the money back is another hassle for the consumer who has to take photos of the bar- codes of the rejected bottles and send these photos on WhatsApp to a specific number. Consum- ers are still in the dark how the refund through this system will work. Additionally, rejected bot- tles are being left in the streets defeating the whole purpose of collecting such containers." Consumers have also pointed out that restaurants are charging the deposit on bottles that the restaurants then retains. ACR Malta wants restaurants, bars and hotels to deduct the deposit due on bottles retained by them, from the final bill to the consumer. It also called for a robust reg- ulatory and monitoring system that safeguards public interest, to monitor the amount of depos- it money collected and ensure any unclaimed deposit money be passed on to government to fund environmental initiatives. "Un- claimed deposits may accrue as not all single-use beverage con- tainers may be taken to BCRS de- pots, for example by tourists and elderly people. The monitoring system should also ensure that the collected beverage containers are being recycled appropriately," Azzopardi said. "Accountability should be giv- en to the public on total bever- age container deposits paid, how much of these were redeemed, the amount of unredeemed de- posit money and how the latter was used."