Malta’s oldest teachers’ union has turned to court to stop a recently-created rival from issuing directives to Learning Support Educators. 

In a judicial protest filed on Tuesday, the Malta Union of Teachers said that it alone represented LSEs and that directives issued by the Union of Professional Educators were illegal and causing confusion among educators. 

The MUT accused its rival union of trying to take credit for work it was doing to defend the interests of LSEs, in an attempt to curry favour with them.

The dispute concerns payments LSEs say they are owed for their work and for supervising students as they accompany them on school transport. 

A UPE spokesman said last week that the union would be issuing directives to its members following the government's failure to resolve the matter. The MUT says it has no authority to do so. 

While the MUT has almost 10,000 members and dates back a century, the UPE was only formed some years ago under the auspices of UĦM – Voice of the Workers and has just over 500 members. 

In a statement accompanying a copy of its judicial protest, the MUT explained its position. 

"Laws regulating trade union recognition are clear and only the union which enjoys recognition by a majority can intervene and negotiate collective issues or take industrial action," it said. 

In its judicial protest, the MUT said that it had held a number of meetings with the government to resolve LSE issues, with a further one scheduled for Friday. 

The MUT called on the UPE to stop its “irresponsible and abusive” actions immediately and said it was holding it legally responsible for any confusion the situation caused within the education sector.