The teachers’ union believes it can conclude prolonged discussions with the government over a collective agreement at MCAST at the beginning of next year, despite tensions reaching new highs and talks appearing deadlocked.

“In our opinion, with a little more work, we can reach an agreement... I’m hopeful that with goodwill from both sides ‒ and from our side there is goodwill ‒ I think that we could come to an agreement at the beginning of the year,” Malta Union of Teachers president Marco Bonnici said.

“I am optimistic for a reason. When we have situations like this ‒ and we have had similar cases ‒ where we see that we have 10 differences or 20 differences with the other side, we sat down around a table and we came to an agreement,” he said.

Bonnici said the MUT and the government could reach an agreement “within a matter of days or weeks” if negotiations on the remaining points of contention were reopened.

Recent negotiations between the government and the MUT have ground to a halt, with the government’s chief industrial negotiator, Joyce Cassar, saying they will not continue talks with the union unless the directives affecting students are rescinded.

Among other directives, the MUT has instructed lecturers not to disclose assessment marks to students, to limit work to essential tasks like teaching, and to halt research activities, including providing support to students for their dissertations.

They have also been told to avoid communication with MCAST administration and students outside designated contact hours.

On Friday, Bonnici said the union has no intention of suspending any directive.

“We have already shown good faith by suspending the directive concerning marks during the summer. We did so because we had an understanding with the government that they would come up with proposals leading to the conclusion of the agreement.

“Since that day, we have not arrived at a conclusion.”

Bonnici said they would remove the directives only when they have a draft agreement they can take to their members.

But doesn’t he feel that students are being unfairly affected by the directives?

The MUT president said many students at MCAST are backing the union and their lecturers.

“Our interest is for our members and MCAST to have a better future,” Bonnici said, adding that “many of the students who speak to us tell us that they understand and respect our cause. They say, ‘We know we are suffering, but we are willing to do so because you want everyone to benefit in the end.’”

Bonnici said the government could end the directives by coming to an agreement with the union.

“We’re telling the government, come speak to us, let us solve the issue together. We have a good prospect to conclude (discussions) at the start of the new year. Let’s do it.”

Reasoning behind ‘unacceptable’ demands

In a highly unusual move earlier this month, government negotiator Cassar and other civil servants, including the education ministry’s permanent secretary Matthew Vella, went public with union demands the government deemed “unacceptable.”

Among them was a €400 allowance to correct resit exam papers, an extra 10 days of holiday leave, a demand to cap the number of students admitted into diploma courses at MCAST, and another union demand to allow lecturers to be promoted to “senior lecturers” even if they do not hold a doctorate.

On Friday, Bonnici was asked to explain the union’s reasoning behind each of its proposals.

On the €400 allowance proposal, Bonnici said the idea originated from MCAST management. 

“MCAST said, ‘Let’s look at how we can improve the financial package,’ and the resit (allowance) was one way to improve the financial package.”

Bonnici clarified that they are not proposing an allowance of €400 for every student who takes a resit exam, but rather an allowance accounting for the extra work of having to correct resit exams.

“It made it seem that if 10 students fail, they (the lecturer) would get €4,000, but that’s not the case.”

On the leave issue, Bonnici said that different workers at MCAST have varying contracts providing different numbers of leave days.

Bonnici said the union wants to ensure all workers at MCAST are entitled to the same amount of leave.

“Naturally, we did not go for the lowest number of leave entitlements but the highest,” he said.

The proposal concerns only non-lecturing staff, including directors, deputy directors, student mentors, senior research officers, and technicians, he said.

“If the government doesn’t want to align that, it won’t be, but the messy situation at MCAST will remain.”

On capping the number of students in classrooms for diploma courses and above, Bonnici said introducing a limit to class sizes would improve the quality of education.

“What we are proposing is to look at what class sizes are right now and establish that number as a cap... I was in class sizes of 200 or 250, and in no case is the quality of education better in a class that size instead of a class of 40 students.”

Even if the cap is higher than the current number of students, an upper limit needs to be set, he said.

“We were close to agreeing to this proposal,” he added.

On the doctorate proposal, Bonnici said MCAST teaches several vocational subjects for which it is difficult to obtain a PhD. He cited subjects such as “hair and beauty.”

“That is an area where the lecturers are professional and experienced, but the opportunities to obtain a master’s or PhD are limited,” Bonnici said. 

He said the MUT’s proposal is for two paths to the senior lecturer grade: either by holding a PhD or by having a master’s and several years of experience.

Bonnici said the MUT’s remaining demands are negotiable. “Everything is negotiable, that’s the nature of negotiations. I give something, you give something back. Only the government is saying they are not negotiating further, and that’s the problem.

“Let’s negotiate, compromise, and reach an agreement,” Bonnici said.