The teachers' union will be suspending directives at MCAST following progress in its discussions about the college educators' collective agreement.

In recent weeks the MUT registered a trade dispute with MCAST over a delayed collective agreement that left students without exam results for two months.

Last week MCAST students walked out of their lectures, protesting the action.

Hours before the students' protest, the Education Ministry had said it would "intervene" to help conclude negotiations. The protests went ahead.

On Thursday, the MUT said that through the intervention of the Education Ministry, the union and the college had reached a way forward to continue and conclude negotiations.

"There were intense meetings to iron out differences and to expedite negotiations of a new agreement.

"Significant progress has now been registered and the MUT shall be meeting lecturing grades next Tuesday to update them about the progress in negotiations. Meetings with other grades will follow," the union said.

MUT added it will be suspending the directive on student marks on Tuesday.

MCAST welcomes MUT decision

In a statement MCAST welcomed the MUT’s decision.

It said talks on staff working conditions had been constructive, and significant progress has been made.  

PN: Why did the government wait so long?

The Nationalist Party in a reaction said the government should not have waited two years after the collective agreement expired to intervene to get the talks moving.   

The Robert Abela government should not have delayed talks with the lecturers while Mcast students suffered months of uncertainty during which they did not get marks or feedback on their assignments, shadow minister Justin Schembri said.