The Malta Union of Teachers and the Malta Union of Professional Psychologists have registered an industrial dispute, warning they were prepared to take any action to defend their members.

The issue centres on the working conditions of educational psychologists, an issue that has been dragging on for years, the unions said in a statement yesterday.

While the unions and the government representatives met at the office of the director general of education on Friday, the unions insisted that the talks would continue without any prejudice to the two sides.

What irked the unions mostly, however, was that the government had written personally to the psychologists warning them that they would lose their jobs if they did not conform totally to what the government was demanding, the unions said.

During Friday's meeting, the unions emphasised that the letters to the psychologists - which they felt amounted to threats - should be withdrawn at least while the talks lasted but the authorities felt they should not budge an inch, the unions said.

In a counter-statement, the Education Division said the psychologists had had their tertiary education paid for by the Education Division on the understanding that, once they graduated, they would work as psychologists in the state education system.

The post demands that the psychologist works normal office hours and not school hours as they had unilaterally decided to do, the Education Division said.

The psychologists decided to take Christmas and Easter holidays as teachers did, which went against regulations, the division added.

A situation where employees decide their own hours of work was unacceptable, the division noted.

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