Updated 4.40pm with Curia's reply
Negotiations to revise working conditions for teachers at Church schools have stalled, with the teachers’ union saying conditions must be at least as advantageous as those for educators in public schools.
The Malta Union of Teachers listed six areas of disagreement which months of negotiations over a new collective agreement had failed to resolve, and said on Saturday that it was registering a trade dispute with the Secretariat for Catholic Education.
Sore points include church authorities’ reported unwillingness to accept a mechanism through which schools would recognise the service of teaching grades already employed in church schools and who wish to provide their services in another church school and church authorities’ refusal to rovide laptops to kindergarten and learning support educators.
Church authorities were also unwilling to adequately compensate teachers for the additional workload caused by the need to prepare exam papers and were providing teachers employed by church schools with inferior conditions to those of teachers at the same teaching grade but working in state schools, the MUT said.
The union also criticised church authorities for “expecting to have a pick and choose mechanism” for summative and continuous assessment, and noted that current negotiations were excluding seven counsellors whose conditions had always been aligned with those of other grades in previous agreements.
“The MUT shall not be accepting conditions of work which are inferior to what is being expected and shall be updating members about the situation during a dedicated meeting,” it concluded.
Church secretariat expresses surprise
Meanwhile, the Secretariat for Catholic Education expressed surprise that the MUT declared an industrial dispute on issues it is working on to resolve.
The union was also informed that, in the coming days, the secretariat has meetings scheduled with different entities to discuss the issues highlighted by the MUT, a statement issued by the Curia said.
The secretariat emphasised that all education grades employed by Church schools and reimbursed by the State enjoy the same financial remuneration through the agreement reached between the Holy See and Malta in 1991.
Similarly, all education grades paid directly by Church schools and governed by the collective agreement with the MUT enjoy identical conditions.
"The secretariat clarifies that employers have a right and obligation to develop roles to suit the respective contextual needs, which interested and eligible candidates may freely choose to express interest in and eventually take up through selection processes."
It said it is very conscious of its responsibility towards its education grades and thousands of students, and is fully committed in pursuing its efforts to reach an agreement.