University and Junior College lecturers have suspended industrial action following assurance that the government shall come up with counter proposals to enable collective agreement negotiations to continue by Thursday, the unions said.

The Malta Union of Teachers and the University of Malta Academic Staff Association yesterday jointly declared a trade dispute with the University and the government “on the needless procrastination” to hammer out an agreement.

The unions said they had submitted proposals on the financial package for the collective agreement on April 23, as had been requested by the government.

But, since then, they had received no feedback, creating a deadlock in negotiations.

The unions gave the university and the government until tomorrow to produce counter-proposals or face industrial action.

In a statement today, the unions said they were informed by the director of industrial relations and employment, Noel Vella, in his capacity as mediator that the government's counter offer would be made by Thursday.

The unions warned that they will reinstate the actions as from Friday if no acceptable counter proposal was received by Friday at 11am.