Unhealthy relations: Vitals faces first industrial action

● Technical employees at St Luke’s instructed to not recognise VGH’s management

Engineers and technical workers at St Luke’s Hospital will not be recognising Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH) as its new management before certain issues concerning their employment are addressed.

The Malta Independent on Sunday is informed that the UHM Voice of the Workers has issued a directive for employees at St Luke’s Hospital, excluding nurses, to ignore instructions given to them by the new management under the wing of Mr Ram Tumuluri. The UHM is insisting that these technical workers are not to acknowledge the new management until the con- tracts signed by the government and VGH are made public and issues relating to employees are addressed.

“I still cannot understand how VGH is ready to operate without having presented the contract in public. By contract, I mean the uncensored version of the agreement,” a spokesperson for the UHM told this newspaper.

Some 30 workers will be affected by this ‘preliminary industrial action’, as described by the UHM, which comes into force tomorrow.

This newsroom is informed that these workers were called in for a meeting at the Health Ministry at which they were told that, from now on, they had to answer to VGH. Naturally, the workers started to ask a lot of questions and requested further details regarding the future of their employment. They inquired, particularly, about the 46-hour week that they currently work. The Ministry informed them that this would not be guaranteed. “Take the last 46hour salary as one last Christmas gift,” a Ministry official told them during the meeting.

Those present at the meeting were offered the possibility of being transferred, but they were not told to which government department they would be sent if they decided to make such a move.

Up to this point, the unions had not been notified of these changes. When VGH first held press conferences to announce their arrival in Malta (and Gozo), Ram Tumuluri, the Director for local operation of the hospitals, had promised that hospital employees would retain their government contract under the conditions stipulated in their respective agreements.

A UHM spokesperson also explained that the job description of these workers will also change as, unlike in their current position, they will now be working at St Luke’s all the time, whereas before, their services were required at other locations.

These changes will come about with no prior consultation with the unions involved, said the UHM. “These are government workers and their rights cannot be changed,” said a spokesperson.

VGH to bring in 150 new workers on Monday, none of whom are nurses

This newsroom is informed that VGH, the company which now owns St Luke’s Hospital, Karen Grech hospital and the Gozo General Hospital, will be bringing in some 150 new workers to add to the workforce for their new operations on the islands. The nationality of these workers is still unknown, as are their promised positions.

An MUMN spokesperson, contacted by this newspaper, confirmed that these new workers are definitely not nurses.

This newsroom has tried to reach two VGH representatives to ascertain the country of origin of these workers and the jobs they will be carrying out.

However, no spokesperson could be reached yesterday by the time of going to print.

Stories surrounding Vitals Global Healthcare have cast a shadow on the deal with the government. The contracts have never been published in full for parliamentary and media scrutiny, with Health Minister Chris Fearne saying that parts of the contract had to be concealed due to “commercial sensitivity.”

Furthermore, media reports have emerged claiming that company director Ram Tumuluri owned a company that had ended up bankrupt. These reports were denied by Mr Tumuluri.

The ultimate beneficial owner (UBO) of Vitals Global Healthcare is Oxley Capital Group, led by Mark Pawley as CEO. Oxley Capital Group manages $1.4 billion of assets with National Australian Bank and Mitsui, as well as private funds.