Claudia Calleja
Lecturers reject pay offer
University lecturers yesterday overwhelmingly rejected the government's proposal for a new collective agreement, opening the way for new industrial action.
The lecturers mainly objected to the pay offer they say does not match the conditions they would be expected to work under.
A total of 176 lecturers out of 178 rejected the draft agreement in a secret ballot held in the afternoon. According to the statute of the University Academic Staff Association (Umasa), a collective agreement needs to be approved by its members during an extraordinary general meeting.
The president of Umasa, Victor Buttigieg, said: "Through their vote the members have rejected the whole collective agreement that included conditions of work and was not limited to a salary package".
At the start of the month, the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT) and Umasa had ordered University and Junior College professors and lecturers to stage a one-day strike. The academic staff had boycotted the ceremony marking the opening of the University's academic year. Last June, academic staff were directed not to submit marks of corrected examination scripts or oral examinations and not to participate in any examination boards. This action was eventually withdrawn.
The government, the MUT and Umasa have been deadlocked over the financial package for some time in their efforts to agree on a new collective agreement for lecturers to replace the one that expired in December 2003.
The unions are demanding substantially more than what the government is offering and they insist the government's "ambitious" package of conditions ought to be reflected in their pay.
Mr Buttigieg said the next step was industrial action but he was not yet in a position to give any specifics. First he would have to sift through members' feedback and discuss the way forward with the MUT, he said.
MUT president John Bencini said his union and Umasa had been working together since negotiations for the new agreement started over a year ago.
He explained that, unlike Umasa, the MUT's statute does not bind it to seek its members' votes but the union had been consulted. Yesterday, the MUT met Junior College lecturers and is planning to meet its members who work at the University.
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J. Borg
Nov 1st 2008, 14:53
@Mark Gauci states: They are not doing their job properly and so they don't deserve a single extra cent!
Dear Mr Gauci.....I have no clue how you can judge whether my colleagues and myself are doing a good job or not? How are you measuring what is good or bad? Do you know the criteria we are formally measured with or not? It is not what YOU think but the formal criteria that count. We are not simply measured by how many hours of lectures we deliver per week...but by many other metrics including quality of research carried out, peer reviewed publications, contribution to the nation/society etc. It is a pity that you are not appointed to audit our Faculties and Departments. All I can say is that we regularly get audited from foreign experts ....only to be told that our academic work is collectively of very very high quality. Of course, like any big organizations, there are also weaknesses that need to be corrected. However, please do not magnify the weaknesses without magnifying the strengths too. Otherwise, you quickly loose credibilility in your arguments....and I'm afraid you precisely did that!
Marc A Azzopardi
Oct 31st 2008, 22:43
@ J. Sammut... While agreeing with 90% of what you say... You also say: "the published proposed government wages are basically par with the rate of inflation"... But you should really look more closely!
This would have been true if salaries rose steadily since 2003... but instead we witnessed a salary freeze of 5 years during a time when the economy was doing well!!!!... Yet, we can never get moratoria from inflationary effects!
So even if *nothing* changes in the collective agreement, the rates proposed are still very unjust. I really don’t care if the government adopts similar tactics in other sectors... If it does the same then it is DEAD WRONG! This is a dangerous philosophy that will gradually push us *ALL* towards bankruptcy.
Having said that, I myself would be eager to see a revolution in the way things work at our University... but that comes at an even higher cost.
Also worth pointing out is the fact that the government’s measure of inflation seems to be different between different types of academics... This is quite ridiculous... Aren’t we are all in the same boat?... The union’s proposals were, on the other hand, quite uniform and just.
J Sammut
Oct 31st 2008, 19:25
Mark, I'm interested to know the source of your information. You claim they want a hefty pay rise & same conditions. Nothing in the article or the comments suggests that. It seems that the dispute is about a proposed change in conditions that isn't poportionate to a change in salaries. The rhetoric that is coming from the lecturers seems to suggest that academics are not accepting the new conditions, as these are not matched by pay rises. Which is fair enough. Indeed, the published proposed government wages are basically par with the rate of inflation. That suggests the government is not offering anything at all in return for changing working conditions. If the government is seeking equivalent conditions to foreign universities, it should be prepared to meet the costs of that, and that's exactly what happened with the health sector. The only other way is pay less, and settle for less. And then when you need more, seek those services abroad, be it a surgical procedure or postgraduate tuition. Personally, I'd rather have high quality professional services locally, as much in health as in tertiary education. Mark, I guess we differ on the value we place on the latter.
Mark gauci
Oct 31st 2008, 17:14
Of course our lecturers reject the whole package. They want a hefty payrise and the same conditions. Could it be more blatant that they are not doing their job properly? Don't give in Mr Government! Let them strike if need be! But never give in to their requests! They are not doing their job properly and so they don't deserve a single extra cent!
David Vella
Oct 31st 2008, 16:05
I agree with the wrong choice of title. Funnily enough the journalist contradicts herself in her very first sentence where she refers to the collective agreement. An agreemen is not about 'pay' only.
J. Borg
Oct 31st 2008, 15:59
This news title is very misleading. As already mentioned below, we academics are not rejecting the pay offer ONLY, but the conditions being stipulated + the pay offer offered for all this new conditions. It is true the Government wants to make a paradigm shift in conditions but not in the related pay. We have beeen given a 62 page Collective Agreement + a 69 page 'Manual of Conduct & Procedures'. You can only imagine the amount and details of conditions being stipulated, for a little pay increase. We have not reached a brain drain yet, but I personnaly know at least 6 full-time academics that left the University in the last 12 months only. We're bound to see much more leaving....and it is not us academics that loose but the country and Gonzi's vision for a Centre of Excellence in Education by 2015. To create Centres of Excellence, you need to also setup 'Excellent Conditions'. It is about time that Maltese start comparing academic jobs here with academic jobs abroad, and not just in terms of pay but also working conditions..
James Borg
Oct 31st 2008, 15:55
@Maria Gauci
Finally someone has started asking sensible questions. What the other persons commented is true, but I would leave it for the two unions to elaborate in due time. Nevertheless I can add that there are other aspects of the agreement that effectively degrade the conditions of work and make lecturing/research at UoM a nightmare. Gov seems to be aiming at two things(and this is my opinion). 1st, it is scaring away lecturers while at the same time it does not seem to want to attract others. 2nd it seems to want to start-off an example which will be a good excuse to turn all teaching professionals into public servants, working from 8am till 8pm and reducing vacation leave (what ppl call holidays) at will.
Maria Gauci
Oct 31st 2008, 14:34
It seems we heard more what the government had to say about this issue than the lecturers.
Its about time someone (lecturer/s) enlightens us with the mentioned "disgraceful working conditions". The public should know what's going on before taking sides - writing in favour of one and against the other! I, for one, do not know what hardship these people are going through. From what Mr. Micallef-Stafrace said below, its not a financial issue only. Mr Abela mentioned other things such as working 8am-8pm and losing 20 days of leave. Why? How? Does this mean they only have 4 days or so of vacation leave? Elaborate on your difficulties because from what I've seen in the proposed salary scheme published by this paper a couple of days ago, the salary is not a bad one and its gets better the higher up one goes!!
John Abela
Oct 31st 2008, 12:58
It is not the lecturers who are asking for too much but rather the Government is asking for too much and then not wanting to pay for it. This is NOT about pay but about a whole list of compeletely unacceptable new conditions like having to work from 8am to 8pm, losing 20 days of vaction leave, plus many others. If the minister thinks that the lecturers will ever accept such disgraceful working conditions of work then she has another think coming.
Kirill Micallef Stafrace
Oct 31st 2008, 12:36
what a misleading heading.
' lecturers mainly objected to the pay offer' is also untrue- we objected to a large number of issues within the collective agreement, so much so that before the final financial offer was presented it was pretty obvious that the agreement was to be rejected