The Malta Union of Teachers has complained to a church school after a call it issued for the employment of an assistant head of school laid down that applicants must be practising Catholics.
In a newsletter issued this evening, the MUT said it had written to the head of St Monica School, Gzira, about a recent call of applications for assistant head of school which included the requirement: “Must be of good moral character and a practising Catholic”.
It said the second half of this clause was "a clear breach of agreement, discriminatory and arguably illegal."
Moreover, it said, this call did not explain how these criteria were to be assessed and who would be in the interviewing board to make this judgement.
The MUT asked the school to retract this call and re-issue it in a proper format so as to avoid further action.
The school could not be immediately contacted for comment.
Disagreement between the Church and the MUT over requirements for the engagement of senior members of staff late last year led the union to threaten industrial action, but the situation was clarified after a meeting which was attended by Bishops Charles Scicluna and Mario Grech.
The MUT had expressed concern over reports that, according to a draft document, heads of Catholic schools would have to live in conformity with the Church’s teachings.
Union president Kevin Bonello said at the time that the union agreed on the need to revise the selection of heads of schools but this had to be in line with collective agreements and reflect the country’s employment regulations.
He expressed concern that Catholics who had to seek a separation or were homosexual could not be considered for these top posts.
However, the union said that during its meeting with Mgr Scicluna and Bishop Mario Grech it was assured that the Church had no intention of judging or discriminating among its employees on the basis of their private life.
The union said it was told employees’ private lives would not be investigated and the two sides agreed that educators needed to conform to the codes of ethics and the ethos of the Church school they worked for.