Teachers' strike could be averted

The Malta Union of Teachers is prepared to call off Thursday's strike in State and Church schools if the government comes up with counter proposals to the amendments suggested by the union on the education reform agreement.

While willing to engage in discussions with the union, Education Minister Dolores Cristina said she was baffled by the decision to take industrial action.

Earlier this year, she said, the ministry had informed the union that discussions on the amendments to the reform agreement, signed in July 2007, would continue once discussions on supply teachers, kindergarten assistants and learning support assistants were concluded.

The union attended various meetings after that and did not suggest anything to the contrary, Minister Cristina said.

The MUT also agreed to attend a meeting on May 4 to continue discussing the implementation of the reform when it came to the supply categories - an issue that had led to a two-hour strike in January.

However, MUT president John Bencini denied reaching any such agreement.

"What if they take two months longer? That would mean the end of another scholastic year," he said.

Two days ago the MUT called a one-day strike in all State and Church schools on Thursday. It also announced that teachers would work to rule from May 4.

Bencini said the union had proposed amendments 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 - however, Ms Cristina was not living up to it.

A ministry spokesman said that out of the 70 measures listed in the 2007 reform agreement, 54 had been implemented fully, eight were partially in force and eight were still to be implemented.

The proposed amendments included new requests such as increases in allowances - some of which were being doubled - new wages for new posts, and a reduction in student class population, the spokesman said.

In the case of the Church schools, the union said the Curia failed to start talks on the teachers' collective agreement.

But in a statement, the Church Secretariat for Education called on the MUT to suspend industrial action, saying it was unjustified.

Since the 2007 agreement with government was signed, it said several meetings had been held between the Church and the union, and the agreement was close to being signed.

The latest draft was sent to the secretariat on April 2 and the MUT declared an industrial dispute on April 6, the secretariat said. Further correspondence on the revised agreement was exchanged on April 22.

"It is clear that in three days it was not possible for the Church authorities to study the proposed agreement," the secretariat said.

It pointed out that although the agreement had not been signed, Church school teachers started receiving an increase to their allowance from last January.