The government criticised the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT) and the University of Malta Academic Staff Association (Umasa), accusing them of making students the victims of their actions.

The unions in a rally directed the academic staff of the University and the Junior College to withhold all end of semester examination papers and not to collect scripts for marking where exams papers have already been submitted.

Lecturers were also directed to boycott any boards or committees which they form part of and not to conduct any work on new courses introduced at the university. Umasa president Victor Buttigieg said the directives were indefinite.

The union leaders said their industrial actions were being intensified since talks on a revision of the collective agreement had remained in stalemate despite talks with Finance Minister Tonio Fenech and Education Minister Dolores Cristina.

But the two ministers said this afternoon that the delay in the negotiation process was not the government’s fault.

In a meeting at the Education Ministry on December 9, Umasa asked for negotiations to be reopened on crucial points on which there had already been agreement, because the union’s members did not accept the financial package offered by the government.

The government made it clear that while it was willing to reopen negotiations, it could only do this if Umasa’s officials had their members’ mandate not just to negotiate but also to conclude and sign the agreement.

The government said that unless Umasa was given this mandate, the only two options that remained were for the case to be referred to the Industrial Tribunal or for the reopening of negotiations from scratch.

Should the latter option be taken up, an agreement would first have to be reached on the text, after which negotiations on the financial package would be reopened. The government’s financial offer would also be renegotiated on the basis of the agreement that would be reached.

Dr Buttigieg said after the rally that the unions wanted to continue talks with the government and bring this long-running dispute to an end. The issue has been running since May 2007.

He said the unions sent their last counter-proposals to the government two weeks ago and the government replied last week. He said Mr Fenech had asked the unions not to present the new government proposal to the union membership, something which the unions could not accept.

The lecturers last June had also withheld exam results for some weeks.