The Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST) said today that it could not understand how it had been accused by the Malta Union of Teachers of “blatantly breaching the recently signed collective agreement” in the call for the recruitment of IT lecturers.

The MUT yesterday registered a trade dispute with the college, complaining that the call for applications offered reduced hours when such flexibility was not offered to existing lecturers.

MCAST said that although no specific provision was included in the new collective agreement, the college had in the past favourably considered requests by academic members of staff to work on reduced hours if the request was fully justified and when it was possible for MCAST to make alternative arrangements without having a negative impact on the students as regards to their course entitlement.

"The MUT is aware of such arrangements with lecturers already in post in the various institutes and has never raised the issue or protested against MCAST’s past concessions," the college said.