A teachers' union is claiming a primary teacher was left without a class for the new scholastic year because the head of school dislikes the educator.
The Union of Professional Educators (UPE) said in a statement it had alerted the authorities about the behaviour that was "tantamount to bullying and workplace mobbing" at the St Theresa College Primary School.
Despite an investigation into the matter, it was still in the dark about its conclusions.
"The head of school, allegedly harbouring a grudge against this teacher, failed to treat this teacher at par with other colleagues. In fact, unlike other teachers at this school who were concretely assigned a class before the summer recess, this particular teacher was left pending without justification," the UPE claimed.
The union said it had alerted the Education Ministry about the matter multiple times and consequently asked for "clarity" over the issue.
The union claims that the ministry launched an investigation following reports from various educators about the alleged wrongdoing.
"Although by now the ministry possesses all the required information concerning the alleged wrongdoings, the investigation is taking longer than expected to conclude," UPE complained.
Irrespective of the outcome of the investigation, once these are made public, the union is still concerned about the "legality and ethics of the situation", which it said was left to deteriorate for months on end to the detriment of all.
"Why were the UPE’s reports on allegations of wrongdoing by the head of school not acted upon with immediacy? Why did the head of school fail to concretely assign a class to this teacher after the UPE’s reports? Isn’t this by and of itself a form of retaliation and victimisation of the teacher?
"Worse still, why was the head of school allegedly allowed to defy the instructions of her line manager - the college principal - to assign a class to the said teacher as was her duty to do so in the first place? Why did the Director General of the Directorate of Educational Service not take prompt action to resolve this issue? Is the Director General not bothered about this teacher’s well-being?"