Junior College lecturers to take action over stalled collective agreement talks

Lecturers at the Junior College will begin industrial action on Wednesday, the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT) announced. 

The action comes after the union accused the government in November of delaying negotiations and not responding to a financial proposal for a new collective agreement for lecturers. The last one expired at the end of 2023. 

The union has ordered lecturers to refrain from participating in committee, board and departmental meetings. They have also been told not to submit attendance records and assessment results or marks. 

“The MUT shall support all lecturing grades who shall follow industrial action,” the union said. 

Speaking to Times of Malta, MUT president Marco Bonnici said the union was prepared to escalate further. 

“At the moment, there is no agreement on either pay or conditions. The agreement must be finalised – we can’t go on like this,” he said. 

The industrial action is the latest such action in Malta’s education sector. In January, academics at the University of Malta were instructed to withhold exam and dissertation results, after the academics’ trade union UMASA escalated its own dispute over a new collective agreement with the university. 

In March, Prime Minister Robert Abela had said that discussions had been concluded.

PN deplores government inaction

In a statement, the Nationalist Party said it deplored the apathy and inaction by the government,  which, it said, has resulted in lecturers and students at Junior College being caught in the middle of a political game that was now being repeated every time a new collective agreement was negotiated. It expressed its support for the MUT, lecturers and students.