Nestor Laiviera
Bid to solve impasse over academics' pay package
A meeting between University academics and the government to solve the impasse over the collective agreement is expected to be held "hopefully by next week", a spokesman for the University Students' Council said yesterday.
During a rally last Tuesday, the University of Malta Academic Staff Association and the Malta Union of Teachers stepped up industrial action, calling on members to withhold all future exam papers.
Before that, a one-day strike had been called to nudge the University administration and the government into changing their position on the financial package, the main bone of contention between the two parties. On December 5, the unions instructed members to work to rule, a directive still underway.
Contacted after the meeting, KSU education coordinator Daniela Bartolo confirmed that a meeting was held yesterday between Umasa and the University rector with KSU acting as intermediaries. She said KSU representatives had been holding meetings with various stakeholders to inform them of the students' position in the dispute. These included Finance Minister Tonio Fenech, Education Minister Dolores Christina, MUT and Umasa representatives, as well as the University administration.
Ms Bartolo confirmed that a meeting between all stakeholders was in the pipeline and expressed the hope one could be arranged in the coming days.
She stressed that all stakeholders were willing to negotiate, pointing out that it was more an issue of scheduling a suitable slot for all involved.
She said stakeholders were receptive to the plight of students in the dispute and that the future meeting could shift the current impasse.
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J.Borg
Dec 24th 2008, 08:29
@P Debono
What **you believe** is your problem and as a matter of fact, irrelevant. The truth can be found in facts and not in what you believe or assume. As academics appreciate the ordeal any industrial action can directly or indirectly have on students, they have been very very patiently waiting for a new collective agreement for 5 years. So you are very very wrong my friend when you assume that academics do not understand the ordeal students pass through. At the same time, it is also true that academics are workers themselves who expect to be respected in the work they do and for the increasing pressures they have been undergoing in the last 5 years...new courses, many more students etc. Clearly, for 5 years patiently waiting for new and improved working conditions is unacceptable. Unfortunately, it seems that the only way forward in this country is to take industrial actions, so please do not point your finger at academics who have waited for 5 years..... P Debono ....how would you react after waiting 5 years?
a.mangion
Dec 23rd 2008, 13:31
Igalea would support anyone as long as it's against GonziPN as he calls the government. I'd like to know where he was when in 1984 teachers refused to distribute milk as a work to rule. then the labour government unleashed all hell on teachers. They were locked out, beaten, transferred en masse and vilified. they are still suffering the stigma all these years later.Igalea never misses a chance to comment against the government no matter the topic he finds a way to throw the blame on GonziPN.
lgalea
Dec 23rd 2008, 12:25
P Debono
Do you expect that they take no action when Gonzipn is trampling over them and their rights?
Would YOU allow him to do so?
Industrial action can be taken by ANYONE to safeguard their interests notwithstanding that it will reflect negatively on others.
P Debono
Dec 23rd 2008, 10:39
They've been saying that all stakeholders are receptive to the plight of the students for over six months now, and yet industrial action is stepped up for the second consecutive time.
I will never believe it when a lecturer, himself a former student, says he understands the ordeal that students are going through, when it is he himself that put the student through this mess in the first place!