[attach id=276651 size="medium"]Malta Union of Teachers president Kevin Bonello. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi[/attach]

The Malta Union of Teachers has called on the Church to review its position barring teachers from appealing decisions on promotions.

The union said that a teacher who had been working in a particular Church secondary school for more than a decade had replied to an internal call for applications for the post of assistant head.

The candidate failed to qualify by just one mark and no other candidates qualified.

Refraining from naming the school, the union said the Church authorities initially did not allow the teacher to appeal the decision because the appeal period had elapsed.

However, there was no appeal time limit defined anywhere on the official call.

The Church said appeals were not stipulated in the collective agreement, but the union insisted that the right to appeal was a fundamental human right and there was no need to have it specifically listed in the agreement.

It said that, as a model employer, the Church should be the first to defend workers’ fundamental rights and transparency.

Times of Malta asked the Curia for a reaction to the union’s statement but no reply was received by the time of writing.