Updated 9.30pm

The government and the Malta Union of Teachers have reached an agreement for a collective agreement for educators, following months of negotiations.

Union members must now vote on the agreed-upon deal before it can be signed and implemented. 

The MUT told its members during two online meetings held on Friday that the union's council unanimously backed the deal. 

Following the agreement, "the MUT will now present the new sectoral agreement to its members for approval," a joint government-union statement said. 

Details about the agreement remain a closely guarded secret and the deal will remain under lock and key: teachers who wish to know its terms before casting their vote will only be able to read the agreement at MUT offices, under supervision. 

In a statement by MUT, it said members whose grades are included in the agreement and who are in employment with state or church schools are to register to participate in the online vote on the agreement.

Members also have the opportunity to attend a face-to-face meeting, where MUT will present the agreement to its members. 

The meeting will be held on Thursday May 30 at 4pm, and attendance is on a first come first served basis due to the capacity of the meeting venue. Another meeting is planned for Gozo. 

The deadline to register is Wednesday May 29 at 9am.

No date for a union member vote has been set yet. 

Negotiations have been ongoing for months and reached a boiling point in November when a one-day strike was held. 

Matters also came to a head earlier this month when MUT was considering resorting to industrial action again. 

Then last Friday, the union issued an ultimatum giving the government a week to conclude the sectoral collective agreement for teachers of government and Church schools.

Since then, there has been progress in negotiations, Education Minister Clifton Grima said. 

On Friday morning, Grima said the MUT and the government had been meeting almost daily for the last week. 

"I have personally attended some of those meetings," he said. 

Prime Minister Robert Abela said on Thursday that the government was proposing "pay increases for teachers, which were never proposed before in collective agreement negotiations". 

Abela welcomed the news on X, formally known as Twitter.