The Malta Union of Teachers has filed a data protection complaint after Education Ministry officials reportedly called the partners of teachers late on Tuesday, telling them to relay information about redeployment.

This, the union said, was unprecedented and constituted a data breach since the ministry should not have any access to the personal mobile phone contacts of educators' partners. And in instances when such phone numbers were available, they should only be used in life-threatening emergencies. 

It filed its complaint with the Office of the Information and Data Protection Commissioner.

The Nationalist Party in a separate statement also condemned what had happened, saying it was in breach of privacy and data protection laws. 

On Tuesday, the MUT had ordered its members to ignore and not answer calls, complaining that the deployment process was 'messy' and way too late, giving teachers insufficient time to prepare, especially as many of them were being moved to new schools to teach subjects they had not taught for years.

Redeployment efforts by the ministry, prompted by a shortage of teachers, have ended up in court.