Updated 4.30pm with MUT reaction
Teaching at the Institute of Tourism Studies could be significantly hampered in the coming days, following directives issued by a minority union over what it says are unsafe working conditions and the illogical mixing of students of different levels.
ITS staff members represented by the Union of Professional Educators have been told not to teach or give assessment marks to mixed-level classes. They will also not prepare food for management meetings.
They are also not teaching in kitchens or classrooms that do not provide a full view of the students during practical sessions.
ITS is Malta’s leading hospitality school, where students follow courses that will eventually lead them to a career in tourism and hospitality.
While the majority of staff members are represented by the Malta Union of Teachers, the UPE also represents a significant number of staffers.
UPE executive head Graham Sansone says that ITS students and lecturers are being put into unsafe situations and classrooms which are not conducive to an effective learning environment.
“Management has much to answer to,” the executive head said as he stood in front of the ITS building in Luqa on Friday afternoon.
Sansone said that novice students are being combined into the same classroom with diploma students, who are further along on their studies.
“There is a clear mismatch in the knowledge, skills and competencies to execute different tasks given to both levels of students,” the UPE said in a statement.
Lecturers are also having to teach in kitchens that have blind spots, preventing a clear view of all students, Sansone said. This creates a high risk for all, he said.
“The students are suffering in this situation,” Sansone said.
Calls by UPE to discuss the issue have been unanswered by ITS management.
Instead, the two parties will be meeting in front of the Directorate for Employment and Industrial Relations on Monday.
The directives go against a collective agreement signed between ITS and the Malta Union of Teachers, the union which is recognised to have more than half of the school staff as its members.
“It is agreed that any academics who organise and/or take part in any unofficial industrial action shall be liable to disciplinary action which may lead to dismissal,” clause 38 of the collective agreement reads.
However, Sansone said that the clause will be ignored as the provision is unconstitutional as described in clause 42(1) of the Maltese constitution.
MUT derides UPE and its 'state of panic'
In a statement on Friday afternoon, rival union MUT claimed that "less than a handful" of ITS staff members were abiding by the UPE directives, which it says it actually ordered days ago.
"Directives issued by UPE at ITS are illegal as they tackle collective matters and not individual ones. Furthermore, they amount to strike, leaving the handful of lecturers following such directives at great risk," it said.
The MUT said that the rival union was seeking to misinform people due to it being in a "state of panic". The clause that UPE claims is unconstitutional is present in most collective agreements, it noted.