The teachers’ union has refused all offers made by Malta Council for Arts Science and Technology (Mcast) and was insisting on proceeding down a dead end of strikes and industrial actions, the college said on Thursday.
Mcast said in a statement that in the past two days it had proposed a further improved salary package and working conditions. It was constantly showing a positive attitude to find a fair and just solution, but the union was changing the goal posts every time a step towards a solution was made.
All lecturing grades, LSAs, technical grades and student services grades at Mcast have been ordered to go on strike for two hours on Thursday and Friday.
Read: Mcast, MUT in war of words after court stops strikes
The Malta Union of Teachers (MUT) said on Friday that following the withdrawal of a court mandate by Mcast, it attended three conciliation meetings but the outcome was unsatisfactory.
The mandate was filed after the union announced last month that educators at Mcast would be striking following months of discussions. Industrial action was suspended after a judge upheld a request for a warrant of prohibitory injunction following an application by Mcast.
On Wednesday, Mcast said that every new additional proposal if made during conciliation meetings was rejected by the MUT.
Read: Mcast lecturers want to be on a par with colleagues at Junior College
cast said it offered to immediately match the conditions of its staff to those of Junior College lecturers, including all allowances, for those lecturers who had the same level of qualifications.
Another offer was for all lecturers, irrespective of qualification, to be given the same salary as Junior College lecturers, with many achieving and surpassing this in 2018 and 2019 and others achieving it over the five-year span of the collective agreement.
Mcast said MUT also rejected proposals for an increase in allowances to lecturers from €450 a year to €2,000 a year, reduce teaching loads from 19 hours a week to 17 for senior lecturers and 18 for lecturers and to increase payment for additional duties to €26 an hour.
Mcast said it was offering the best collective agreement ever given to academic staff in its 16-year history and again appealed to the MUT to halt industrial actions, seriously consider its responsibility as a serious trade union of professionals and return to the negotiating table to conclude the agreement for the benefit of academic staff at the college.