Employers are urging the government to postpone talks about a new collective agreement for educators until after the elections.

The Malta Employers’ Association said in a statement collective bargaining negotiations for public sector employees should not be held closer than three months before an election.

It claimed that while on the one hand, the party in government would be in a much weaker bargaining position to negotiate when in election mode, on the other hand, it could also use the outcome for pre-election propaganda.

Talks on the new collective agreement have been ongoing since December 2022.

Last year, Malta Union of Teachers head Marco Bonnici accused the government of having failed to keep its electoral promise to substantially improve the working conditions of educators. 

In November the union issued a set of directives to teachers and educators in all Church and state schools, culminating in a one-day strike. 

Talks resumed and were proceeding well until recently, with Times of Malta reporting that educators could once again resort to industrial action after discussions collapsed.

On Friday, the MUT issued a one-week ultimatum before calling out the Education Minister for lying about wage increases promised to teachers.

In a statement on Saturday, the Malta Union of Teachers said Clifton Grima’s talk about teachers getting a €10,000 raise and new teachers starting on a €36,000 salary “are nowhere to be found in government's financial proposals to MUT”.

The MEA is now warning that while it believes educators deserve adequate remuneration for their critical services, "it would be in the interest of both sides of the table to conduct negotiations with cool heads".

The period during an electoral campaign was "definitely not an ideal setting" for the union and the government to arrive at an equitable solution, it said."Collective bargaining should never be weaponised by either unions or government, as this could have a long-term destabilising effect on the labour market."