Update 2 - Sliema schools start an hour late as teachers strike over parking restrictions

The streets outside the five schools in Sliema were unusually quiet this morning as teachers stayed away in protest over the timed parking scheme introduced by the locality's local council.

The hour-long strike led to most parents also opting to send their children to school an hour late, although the vans were bringing other pupils on time as usual. They were kept in school grounds.

The industrial action was ordered by the Malta Union of Teachers. It said in a statement late yesterday that talks with the local council had failed to yield an agreement.

The union said Transport Minister Joe Mizzi had also met the union's officials about the situation and he would be holding talks with all stakeholders in the locality including the local council itself.

MUT President Kevin Bonello told timesofmalta.com this morning that the strike was a complete success and he augured that a solution could be found to the impasse. 

In a statement, the union appealed to the government and Transport Malta to intervene for a solution to be found. It said it felt it was not acceptable for councils to be allowed to use legal notices to implement parking schemes without even having the obligation to consult the social partners and entities that would be affected by the decisions.

The affected schools are those falling within St Claire College in Sliema, St Francis School, St. Joseph School (Primary and Secondary) and St Dorothy’s School.

The union complained that the local council had ignored its concerns about how the scheme would affect teachers who, it said, would have to leave their classrooms every two hours to move their cars.

It insisted that education was not an extravagance but an essential service which should be given priority.

FORUM: Sliema becoming a booby trap for parking tickets 

The FORUM group of trade unions backed the MUT action and said this morning that Sliema was becoming a booby trap for parking tickets thanks to the local council.

"The decision of Sliema Local Council will not only cause great distress to teaching grades  serving in the schools in Sliema area, but it will ultimately also ruin the day-to-day running of other organizations and business in the same area," the group said.

"In a short while, the Sliema area will simply become a haven of parking tickets, booby-traps for all those who visit Sliema for work, business, shopping, or leisure activities. The Sliema Local Council’s decision is thus an infliction of hardship not only on teaching grades but also on many other workers and fellow citizens," it said.

It reiterated its call for the government to annul a legal notice which enabled the council to introduce the parking scheme.

It said the Central Government had a duty to stop such 'irresponsible' local council decisions, not only in the Sliema but also in other areas with high concentration of services.