Robert Abela said on Thursday that he was confident long-running pay talks with teachers would be wrapped up in the next few days.

The prime minister said the Malta Union of Teachers and the government had held “productive and amicable” negotiations in the last few days. 

Those talks are still ongoing. 

“I am confident we will be able to reach an agreement in the coming days in which teachers will get all they deserve, including arrears,” he said. 

Tensions between the MUT and government were high last week, with the union again threatening industrial action after talks appeared to stall. 

The two sides have been locked in negotiations over a new collective agreement for several months. A one-day strike was held in November.

The conditions and pay of state and Church school educators are currently dictated by an agreement that expired in December 2022.

The union has warned many teachers will abandon the profession unless pay is substantially improved, as Labour promised before the last general election. 

The government said recently that it had offered a yearly salary increase of some €10,000 a year for new teachers. But the MUT said this was 'just words'. 

On Thursday, Abela said the government was proposing “pay increases for teachers, which were never proposed before in collective agreement negotiations”.