GHA industrial grades set to strike over pay and conditions

Close to 100 Unite the Union members from GHA industrial grades will strike as from Friday over unresolved disputes on pay, conditions, and safety.

The strike action will see picket lines at St Bernard’s Hospital commence at 8am on Friday and will end at 7.59am on Friday, December 6 members will return to work normally at 8am on this day.

The dispute is rooted in a claim submitted for the Industrial grades in December 2023 over pay and conditions which included recognition for the work undertaken in a clinical setting, the dispute has also widened to include issues of shifts, allocation of overtime and matters of health and safety, said a statement from Unite.

“There had been no meaningful engagement from the GHA on the claim” until a notification of strike action was submitted on October 30 this year, with action proposed to commence on November 7.

The call for strike action resulted in negotiations with the employer and it was agreed to pause action to allow for those negotiations to take place, said the statement.

The statement added that whilst progress has been made across the issues in dispute, this has proven insufficient to resolve the dispute and further talks this week were unsuccessful which has resulted in the call for strike action.

“This claim was first submitted almost one year ago; however it was only when a trade dispute was declared and strike action called was there any serious engagement on the issues in dispute, that is not the way to conduct industrial relations,” said Stuart Davies, National Officer for Unite Gibraltar.

“The membership agreed to pause the initial strike action in good faith to allow for negotiations and whilst progress has been made this has fallen short of an agreement being reached.”

“The union has repeatedly invited further talks to avert the strike action; however the employer have confirmed that there is no further proposal to resolve the dispute.”

“Strike action is very much a last resort, the membership have been patient since the submission of the claim in December 2023 and when action was called, this was paused to allow for negotiations.”

He added that it is regrettable that the membership have been pushed to having to engage in strike action in pursuit of a successful resolution of their claim.

“The union has been in the process of agreeing cover for clinically critical areas of the hospital to ensure that patient safety is not compromised, but there will clearly be disruption for users of the GHA which the union acknowledges, but the membership have been led to this position and the resolution of the dispute is in the gift of the employer,” he said.

“The union remains ready and willing to hold further talks to seek a negotiated outcome and to avoid strike action.”

There will be picket lines at St Bernard’s Hospital for the duration of the strike action.