Lecturers to boycott academic year opening ceremony today

The dispute between the unions representing lecturers and the university management took another twist yesterday when lecturers were ordered to boycott today's opening ceremony of the new academic year on campus.

Lecturers were instructed instead to attend a rally organised by the Malta Union of Teachers and the University of Malta Academic Staff Association (Umasa).

The lecturers have not ruled out a strike if no solution is found by tomorrow when the academic year officially starts.

The unions and the university management are at loggerheads over the financial package of the collective agreement for university and Junior College lecturers to replace the one that expired in December 2003.

The unions' demands are substantially more than what the University is offering. A meeting at the office of the Director for Employment and Industrial Relations and another with the Finance Minister failed to solve the impasse.

In his first statement since the lecturers threatened to stall the start of the new academic year, University Rector Juanito Camilleri acknowledged the stalemate and urged students to attend the ceremony as planned.

Pressed to reply to questions following a press conference yesterday, Prof Camilleri told The Times he had no further comments to add. He admitted, however, that the situation was "worrying", without elaborating.

On their part, the unions said their claims are based on the fact that lecturers are grossly underpaid, especially when compared to other universities across Europe.

Over the past 20 years, salaries of academic staff have fallen consistently when compared to the national GDP per capita, while productivity has increased at least threefold.

The new collective agreement would improve productivity, efficiency, accountability and profitability at the university.

In order to enable the academic staff to perform and compete in the international scenario, the working conditions should be similar to those of foreign universities, the unions noted.

"The (Finance) Minister has repeated the age-old argument that the country's finances do not permit the requested salaries. So, the government expects the academic staff to continue to subsidise the country's excellent tertiary education system through our own personal pockets. This has to stop. It is time to seriously stand up for our dues," the unions said.

In a counter statement, the University said that the text of a new collective agreement was finalised and agreed upon in principle and it was only issues pertaining to the financial package that were pending.

Directly referring to the unions' comment that the Rector was not present at negotiation meetings, Prof. Camilleri emphasised that he "was personally involved in the drafting of the agreement and had several meetings with the government to assist with the process of negotiation of the financial package".

When contacted, MUT president John Bencini said the Rector was involved in the discussions and that it was "thanks to him and his vision for the university" that the text of the collective agreement was finalised and agreed upon.

He added, however, that in June the members of the negotiating team changed and the Rector was not part of the new team although he attended two meetings last month.

Meanwhile, the University Students' Council (KSU) urged all parties to work for consensus that would be in the interest of students, academics and the country.