MUT taking firm stand over collective agreement

The Malta Union of Teachers yesterday warned the government it would seek the backing of its biennial general conference to issue directives unless it received a positive reply to its proposals on the new collective agreement and the fate of 231 kindergarten assistants.

MUT president John Bencini said that as it stood, the draft agreement for civil servants, covering 2002-2005, was full of "empty words".

He was speaking during a news conference at the MUT`s headquarters in Valletta to announce the union conference, starting on Monday.

"The agreement does not provide for any pay rises and the government insists it will not deal with unions on sectoral agreements. There is no mention in the agreement of the proposals the MUT presented to the government two years ago.

"The collective agreement leads to different working conditions for teachers and, as a result, will hinder the implementation of the National Minimum Curriculum," he claimed.

As for the kindergarten assistants, he said they had been promised that they would be promoted to facilitators after undergoing a certificate course.

"But they have been deceived, because no call for applications for facilitators has been published and the assistants have been told that the course they followed was not of a sufficient standard to allow them to qualify as facilitators," Mr Bencini said.

The theme of the general conference, to be held on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday between 5 and 8 p.m., will be `Unity in diversity: values in education in the context of the European Union`.

The keynote speaker will be Janet Powney, senior researcher at the Scottish Council for Research in Education.

Mr Bencini said this edition of the conference had a record 55 motions to debate.

The greatest concern of teachers was the need to upgrade the level of security at schools following incidents of physical and verbal abuse by parents and students.

The MUT expected the government to set up a counselling service for teachers who are abused.

Another cause for concern for the MUT was the fate of about 50 teachers at the Fellenberg Technical Institute who could end up redundant because the conditions of employment offered by the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology were not acceptable to them.

The MUT is also preoccupied at the disruption in mainstream classes by students with severe disability.

"While the union strongly believes in putting children with mild disability into mainstream classes, it is extremely concerned about including children with severe disability who need to be kept clean and given medication," Mr Bencini said.

The MUT president also highlighted the case of a teacher who as part of her work attends to the needs of sick children at their homes, and who had been seriously injured in a traffic accident, yet denied injury leave.