All staff at the Malta College for Arts, Sciences and Technology has been ordered not to disclose exam and assessment results to anyone - including students.
The order - which comes into effect on Monday - forms part of a raft of directives issued by their union after talks over the new collective agreement failed.
Sources told Times of Malta the Malta Union of Teachers has registered a dispute with the college and issued directives after negotiations failed mainly due to the financial aspect of the agreement.
Lecturers, student mentors, senior research officers, technicians, learning support educators, student services, directors and deputy directors have all been told to follow directives.
The action is the same one that the union ordered late last year over a delayed collective agreement. Consequently, MCAST students walked out of their lectures in January, protesting the action.
The directives were eventually suspended by the union following progress in its discussions.
Those talks continued, however, they reached a dead end this week, with MCAST management and the government remaining adamant in their position.
Sources said the same situation was being experienced at the Institute for Tourism Studies.
Directives ordered at MCAST
Student support services staff has meanwhile been ordered not to answer phone calls and not act on any communication from administration and management excluding emergencies and crises.
They were also ordered not to issue new referrals or assign new cases unless they were deemed high-risk.
Student mentors have also been ordered to ignore any communication from management and refuse to attend outreach sessions with students.
All lecturing grades- whether full-time or part-time lecturers - have been asked to withhold assessment marks from students, colleagues, internal verifiers, and management. Marks will not be uploaded onto any platform.
The staff has also been asked to refrain from any invigilation duties.
This means that lecturing grades will not distribute or collect assessment papers and will not monitor students to ensure they do not copy during tests.
The directives also limit communication with students, administration and management.
Communication with students will be strictly limited to scheduled lectures and designated contact hours. This includes emails, MS Teams and any other online platforms outside of these scheduled times.
Lecturing grades have been instructed not to attend staff meetings except for those that are timetabled and part of the contact teaching load.
This directive also includes any CPD meetings organised by MCAST.