Education Minister Clifton Grima has remained tight-lipped on the outcome of negotiations with Malta’s primary teaching union as a planned teachers' strike looms just over a week away.
After discussions between the government and the Malta Union of Teachers continued on Friday, the union announced that it had rejected the government’s new financial package, saying that while it was an improvement on their original figures, it was “not enough”.
The MUT ordered teachers not to carry out class assessments, hold meetings with parents or take attendance this week after it called the government’s original offer “insulting”.
Asked to elaborate on how the government planned to proceed negotiating with the union and avoid the November 27 strike, Grima only said that both the government and the union are still open to negotiating.
“I want to assure everyone that contact is still being maintained,” he said.
“While I don’t agree with the MUT’s actions I still respect it and the role of educators. However, I will keep insisting that the package being proposed by the government is sustainable, understands the important role of educators and fulfils its promise of being a significant increase in wages.”
In a statement the MUT said on Friday that the second conciliatory meeting with the government had failed to bring the parties together and “did not result in any tangible solution”, effectively failing to resolve the pay dispute.
The MUT council will be meeting next week to discuss the matter further and remains open to further discussions with the government. In the meantime, industrial action will continue as planned, it said.
Both the MUT and the government have so far refused to disclose the figures around which the pay dispute revolves.
Unions go to war
Union of Professional Educators (UPE) head Graham Sansone has suggested that the government’s initial offer to educators could have been as low as two per cent.
Grima later said that speculation on figures would do more harm than good to negotiations, adding that only the parties at the negotiating table know the figures being discussed, that is the MUT and the government.
Sansone also announced last week that UPE members will not be joining in the MUT’s strike because it believes that the rival union has not been clear on why direct action is necessary.
The MUT announced on Saturday that it has filed libel proceedings against the UPE over alleged defamatory statements made about the MUT’s leadership. MUT accused the smaller union of being “strikebreakers” and trying to derail ongoing negotiations.
Starting salaries for teachers begin at €24,494, rising by annual increments of €447.33 up to a maximum of €27,178.
That is supplemented by a class allowance of €2,350 per annum, together with a works resources fund of €650.
Parents of non-verbal children have said that the directives have left their children more vulnerable in school, as educators are not documenting the daily outcome of their progress as they usually do.