The government’s top industrial relations negotiator has pinned the blame on the MUT for stalling collective bargaining several times despite 70 meetings over lecturers’ conditions at MCAST.
“The three agreements that remained stuck the longest had one common factor: the MUT [Malta Union of Teachers],” permanent secretary Joyce Cassar told Times of Malta.
She was referring to ongoing collective agreement talks at MCAST, the Junior College’s last agreement, which was protracted over union recognition issues, and an agreement with schoolteachers that was concluded in the spring after a year-and-a-half of negotiations and a brief strike.
At MCAST, the previous collective agreement expired three years ago and negotiations recently collapsed.
Earlier this month, the government said that the union’s remaining demands were unacceptable and that talks would not resume until the MUT lifted industrial action that impacted students.
Cassar claimed the MUT wants MCAST lecturers to get a €400 allowance to correct resit exam papers and an additional 10 days of holiday leave.
In a protest over the issue on Tuesday, MUT president Marco Bonnici singled out Cassar, saying that “people who never set foot in MCAST should not dictate what should be in the agreement”.
Replying to the comments, Cassar said it is not a union’s job to dictate how the government works. “I enter these negotiations when asked by my team, from the respective ministry or when asked by the central administration to unblock a situation,” she added.
Cassar argued that she was not responsible for causing the agreement to stall.
“During the same period of time, so many agreements have been concluded,” she said.
In this case, Cassar said she sat on the negotiating table only in the last eight weeks to try to conclude discussions. During that time, the government was willing to discuss with the union, despite the MUT refusing to lift its directives, “as a sign of goodwill and in respect of students and employees”, she said.
“We had 15 meetings in eight weeks before I asked the union to suspend the directives in respect of students,” she said.
Overall, there have been 70 meetings with the MUT over the new collective agreement, she noted.
“With all unions, we ask, as a matter of principle, to suspend directives when we are negotiating. In this case, the MUT was asked to suspend only the directives that are directly affecting students,” she said.
“Does the MUT believe they are better than other unions,” Cassar asked.
The MUT’s ongoing directives include not disclosing assessment marks to students, not showing up for staff meetings, limiting work to essential tasks like teaching and halting research activities, including providing support to students for their dissertations.