Malta Union of Teachers president John Bencini yesterday said directives could be issued "any day" over the issue of facilitator grades.

Addressing a union rally, he urged members to show solidarity between grades.

A recent meeting with the prime minister about the issue had been "dry and inconclusive", he said.

The union has protested over a distinction made between a first batch of 34 facilitators in possession of a diploma and 231 in possession of a certificate in education for learning support facilitators.

This has resulted in facilitators in the same grades having different salary scales.

If specific differences in the modules of the two courses were identified, the MUT would accept the current situation, Mr Bencini said.

He added that he would not be surprised if a call for applications which included in its job description the responsibilities of a nurse for children with disability, were to be issued.

He advised prospective applicants to wait for directives from the union before applying.

Mr Bencini also said the MUT would not be signing the new collective agreement for public service employees, which laid down that negotiations for a further collective agreement would not start before January, 2005, meaning that salaries would not be revised until then.

As it stood, the collective agreement only contained "banalities", he said.

He also referred to the case of a teacher who was injured in a car accident in the line of duty and was not granted any injury benefits. Her sick leave had been used up and she was told to leave if she was unfit.

The MUT would continue to fight for her rights, Mr Bencini said.