(Adds MUT reaction)

The Education Ministry said today that it acted responsibly during the two-hour strike by Kindergarten Assistants, Support Kindergarten Assistants and Learning Support Assistants called yesterday by the MUT, and it had a duty to ensure that the children affected by the strike were cared for in the schools.

The MUT order the strike after saying that an agreement reached more than a year ago was not being fully observed.

The ministry, replying to a statement by the MUT, said the young children could not be left on their own.

It said that although the union had said it would not attend a meeting scheduled for next Tuesday, it remained open for meetings to resolve this issue.

The MUT in a reaction to the ministry’s statement this afternoon, said that the ministry had known well in advance about the strike, yet a day before the action, a circular was issued telling hundreds of parents that Friday was a normal school day.

Could there be something more irresponsible than that, when the ministry knew that there would be practically no one to that care of the young children?

The union said that a meeting it had held a few days before with Ministry officials was positive in that the officials were apologetic, but, as usual, nothing was concluded. The MUT delegation members left the meeting after hearing verbal promises which they had been hearing for 18 months.

The MUT said its members were now fed up, and that included teachers who had been waiting since February for talks on an ‘addendum’ to their collective agreement following the ‘betrayal’ they suffering in the agreements reached by the government with other sectors, notably the medical sector.

While the ministry was saying that its doors were open, the MUT officials had been going in and out of those doors for 18 months without any proper action being taken, the MUT said.

The union said its council would discuss the ‘dire’ situation on Monday.

See also:

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090117/local/mut-president-accuses-government-of-hostile-attitude/

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