Teachers' strike on Thursday

The Malta Union of Teachers has called a one-day strike in all government and Church schools and at Sixth Form on Thursday.

Private schools have been excluded from the action.

The MUT has also ordered a work-to-rule as from the following Monday. That Monday happens to be the first day in which Junior Lyceum exams start, however, union president John Bencini insisted the teachers would not do anything that could disrupt the exams. "It is not our intention to drag children into this," he said.

The dispute with both the government and Church school administrations stem from the education reform agreement of 2007.

In the case of the Church schools, the union said the Curia failed to start talks on the teachers' collective agreement. These would normally start soon after the agreement of teachers working in public schools was concluded.

The dispute with the government also concerns teachers' allowances for work they carry out on top of their teaching duties. Such allowances were negotiated in 2007.

Mr Bencini said the union had sent a set of proposals to the Education Ministry three months ago but never received a response despite several reminders.

He pointed out that there had been a commitment by the previous Education Minister, Louis Galea, to find a solution to their claims. The new minister, Dolores Cristina, asked for time when she took office but did not deliver, he said.

The Education Ministry strongly deplored the action last night, saying the MUT failed to declare that its demands were beyond what the 2007 collective agreement contained, an agreement which, it recalled, the union had described as "historic".

The ministry said the union wanted more allowances and better conditions for teachers in state and Church schools, claims the government said would cost the taxpayer €15 million a year if accepted.

It pointed out that since the agreement was struck, many of the measures agreed upon had been implemented and others were in the implementation stage.

The ministry denied that the introduction of the colleges system had resulted in a deterioration of education in Malta. Over the past two years, about 600 new workers had been employed in the education sector, including 420 teachers and educators. A further 170 people would be recruited in the near future. These would primarily be professionals supporting teachers, as per the collective agreement.