Updated 9pm with government reaction

The Malta Union of Teachers on Friday suspended plans to vote on a new collective agreement for educators, following rumblings of discontent with the deal on the table.

In a statement, the MUT said it was freezing the process because it was “dissatisfied with the government’s final written offer, which will not address the complaints various categories of educators aired during and after a meeting held yesterday.”

During that Thursday night meeting, teachers were shown details of the deal which the union’s council approved last week.

According to figures shown to educators, teachers would see their pre-tax pay increase by up to €4,000 this year. Further increases in teachers’ allowances are planned over the next three years, with rises of up to €6,800 against current levels planned by 2027.

However, those increases will come in the form of allowances, rather than adjustments to educators' base salaries. 

Late on Friday, the Education Ministry called for a discussion about the "fact as laid out on the table", saying educators should be presented with a true picture of what the government was offering.

In a statement, the ministry insisted its proposed financial package improved the educators' remuneration and respected the profession.

Anger among teachers

The proposals have spurned discontent among educators, according to MUT members who contacted Times of Malta following the meeting on Thursday.

One teacher who asked to remain anonymous said she was feeling “angry and dispirited” following the meeting – and said she was not the only one.

“At first, some people clapped when they were shown the slides. But as the evening progressed and people took out their calculators, they became increasingly disillusioned,” she said.

Commenting on the proposed increases in allowances, she said they were not enough, stressing allowances were taxable but did not count toward teachers’ pension contributions.

The teacher said she was "tired of being viewed as a glorified babysitter and a leech to society,” stressing educators were expected to provide education and pastoral care "without access to adequate resources and a wage which reflects our professional status and abilities”.

MUT: We will keep gathering feedback

The union's decision means negotiators will need to reconvene and draft a new agreement to present to union members for a vote. 

In its statement, the MUT said it would continue to gather feedback in the coming days and "clarify incorrect and untrue information about this deal." 

It said it was confident that pending issues could be ironed out following talks with the government and that a revised deal could soon be put to union members to vote. 

Salaries and allowances

The agreement that has now been frozen included a raft of other proposals including revised starting salaries for kindergarten teachers (KGEs) and learning support educators (LSE), quicker salary progression, a one-off payment of €1,000 and an additional allowance of €2,000 for those with more than 20 years' experience, among others.

Basic salaries would stay the same under the proposed changes, with pay increases effected through increased allowances, which are paid in addition to salaries.

Teachers’ basic salaries are based on scaled public sector pay rates, which are the same across government; newly qualified teachers (NQTs), for example, begin their career at a ‘scale 9’ rate of pay, which starts at €25,589 and rises in increments each year.

At present, NQTs receive an allowance of €3,000 per year in addition to their salaries.

Under the new agreement, which is now frozen, this would rise to €6,500 this year – a real increase of €3,500, with year-on-year increases seen until 2027, when the agreement would be up for renegotiation.

More experienced teachers on higher pay scales would also see their allowances increase, with those at a scale 7 seeing an increase of €3,800 this year and €6,800 in real terms by 2027 when compared to current levels.

A new scale 6 position called ‘senior teacher’ was also being proposed, open to those with more than 20 years of experience following a call for applications.

Senior teachers would be considered part of the school’s senior leadership team (SLT) and be expected to carry out additional duties including administrative work. They would have received an allowance of €11,000 per year by 2027 and received backdated pay.

All figures given are before tax.

Career progression

While public sector jobs are set at standardised pay scales, these increase year-on-year for seven years as a worker’s experience increases.

At present, a teacher entering the profession at scale 9 takes eight years to progress to the next pay scale. Under the proposals, this time would be shortened to two years. Meanwhile, the time to climb from scale 8 to 7 would decrease to five years.

One teacher Times of Malta spoke to said MUT members had not been told whether the salary reached by the end of the reduced timeframes would equal the pay reached after the eight years spent in each scale under the current rules.

Meanwhile, a teacher holding an MQF7 qualification or a Bachelor in Education (Honours) degree will see their time to progress to scale 8 shortened to two years, while those with an MQF6 qualification will take four years.

All changes to pay scale progressions will be backdated to the start of last year.

KGEs and LSEs

The starting salary of all KGEs and LSEs is being bumped up by two pay scales, rising from scale 15 to 13, with the ceiling scale moving from 13 to 11 provided the educator has 10 years of experience.

Shifting from scale 13 to 12 will take kindergarten and learning support educators five years under the new proposals.

Supply teachers will also see improvements to their allowances.

Other changes

Another new position being created is that of ‘school administrator’, which will be deployed in all schools and start at pay scale 11. School administrators will be responsible for school facilities at all times and answer to the school head and senior management team.

The proposals also see changes to leave, with special leave increasing slightly and just over a third able to be carried over to the next year. Meanwhile, teachers on paid study leave will also receive their allowance and be allowed to carry out part-time work with permission.

All teachers, including those providing supply lessons, will receive a one-off payment of €1,000.

Earlier this month, the MUT publicly called out Education Minister Clifton Grima after he said teachers would receive a €10,000 raise, with new teachers starting on a salary of €36,000. The union said the figures were “nowhere to be found in the government's financial proposals to MUT”.

Responding to the union, Grima doubled down on the figures and accused the MUT of spreading “selective information". He warned the government could publish the negotiations in full in response, so “people will be able to see the true facts for themselves”.

Questions were sent to the Education Ministry.