Education Minister Clifton Grima has warned against speculating on a proposed teachers’ pay rise ahead of a meeting between the MUT and the government to discuss a dispute between the two sides.
The Malta Union of Teachers has already issued directives to educators and is planning a strike on November 27 after the government offered what the union called an “insulting” pay package during negotiations for a new collective agreement.
Teacher’s salaries start at €24,494 and rise by €447.33 a year up to a maximum of €27,178.00, excluding any allowances they may be entitled to.
Both the union and the ministry have so far refused to disclose what pay increase offers or demands have been made.
In comments to Times of Malta, Grima said that throwing around figures haphazardly could cause more harm than good to negotiations.
“Only the parties at the negotiation table know the figures being discussed and those are the government and the MUT,” Grima said.
“Anyone who tries to mention or make up other figures has no idea what they’re talking about. It can only create more confusion and it shows a lack of ethics and lack of respect.”
Union of Professional Educators head Graham Sansone previously said that he believed the proposed increase to teachers’ pay could be as low as two per cent.
The UPE has also said its 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 has not provided any of its council members a copy of the discussed text, so no one knows the reason for the strike,” Sansone said in a press conference last week.
“Is it over a €50, €100 or €1,000 yearly allowance? What issues during negotiations have not been agreed to? Can the MUT leadership clarify what the government has proposed and what the MUT expected?”
According to a government vacancy post for a secondary/post-secondary teacher, which was published back in May, the salary for the post of teacher is placed on salary scale 9. At that scale, the starting salary for teachers starts at €24,494, rising by annual increments of €447.33 up to a maximum of €27,178.
The salary is supplemented by a class allowance of €2,350 per annum, together with a works resources fund of €650.
After eight years, a teacher will progress to salary scale 8 – starting at €26,048, rising by annual increments of €486.83, to a maximum of €28,969.
If a teacher completes a further eight years, they will advance to salary scale 7, starting with a wage of €27,697, rising by annual increments of €531. At that rate, teachers can get up to a maximum of €30,844.
A teacher can also go up the salary scale after six years (instead of eight) if they cumulate a total of 360 hours of “recognised self-sought continuous professional development” (CPD) over six years.
As of last Monday, the MUT ordered educators not to carry out class assessments, refrain from meeting parents and not submit attendance sheets as the dispute with the government drags on.
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.
Those whose children have other learning difficulties have also voiced concerns because meetings to discuss students’ individual education programmes have been cancelled.
Teachers’ pay has long been hotly disputed in Malta. In 2018, a local study showed that teachers felt they did not earn an adequate income compared to their workload and skills.
A year later, a European Commission study showed that Maltese teachers’ starting pay fell just below the average of 42 European countries. At the time, the starting salary of a teacher in Malta was €22,603 per year – without allowances – while the European average for primary school teachers stood at over €25,000.