Teachers' union to step up action

The teachers' union will be stepping up industrial action in state schools following what it called a "useless and futile" meeting with the Finance Ministry yesterday.

"We will announce further directives shortly because no tangible consideration was given to the multitude of additional responsibilities that have loomed over the past two years," the general secretary of the Malta Union of Teachers, Franklyn Barbara said.

The meeting was between the Finance Ministry and several trade unions representing civil service employees.

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech expressed surprise at the MUT's reaction, saying that all the unions taking part were able to put any questions and raise any issues and most of them did so and asked for further clarifications.

"However, the MUT officials attending did not utter a single word or put any questions, so it is very surprising that they are now resorting to public statements to air such concerns," Mr Fenech said when contacted.

During the meeting, held at the Old University in Valletta, Mr Fenech outlined a series of principles applied in a recent exercise to compare various sectoral agreements that culminated in a report.

The president of the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin, Gejtu Tanti and his counterpart in the General Workers' Union, Victor Carachi, said the meeting was a general one where principles were outlined. The next step would be negotiating pending sectoral agreements.

Mr Carachi said the minister explained from the start the government's report was for internal use and copies would not be distributed. Mr Carachi said he would not have minded getting hold of the report but it was not indispensible to negotiations.

However, the MUT insisted that not having a copy defeated the purpose of the meeting.

"To the MUT's dismay the meeting just consisted of a speech by the Finance Minister... When asked to provide a copy of the study report, he declined on the basis that it was intended for internal use by the government," Mr Barbara said.

"The minister made it amply clear no comparisons should be made between different grades... Apparently, this whole study just took into account the take-home pay of different grades irrespective of additional duties that have come into force since the last reform agreement."

The report, commissioned six months ago, sparked industrial action by the MUT, which is insisting the allowances given to state school teachers do not reflect their workload.

Earlier this week, the MUT issued directives after being informed that the report concluded there were no anomalies in the allowances given to teachers as compared to the rest of the civil service.

Teachers have been instructed not to distribute food to children, attend school council meetings, carry out college-based work or clean after students, among other tasks.

The union will decide what action to take at a meeting planned for Monday.