Updated 11.15am

Workers deserved a government that would treat unions fairly and not one that undermined them, PN spokesman for education Theresa Commodini Cachia said on Friday, criticising the attempts to ‘muzzle teachers’.

She was referring to the request for a warrant of prohibitory injunction presented by Mcast which stopped the industrial action being planned.

The MUT had ordered strikes of a few hours on Thursday and Friday but they were suspended after a court issued an injunction at the request of Mcast late on Wednesday.

Read: Mcast, MUT in war of words after court stops strikes

“The uncertainty at Mcast is the result of Joseph Muscat’s inability to finalise a new agreement with the teachers since the last [collective] agreement expired in December 2016,” she said, adding that no one would benefit from a hostile atmosphere between teachers and students at the college.

MUT declines reconciliation meeting request

The Malta Union of Teachers on Friday said that Mcast had tried to set up an urgent reconciliation meeting with it. However, it made it clear that the prohibitory warrant to stop industrial actions had made the issue sub judice.

"Mcast, however, has made it impossible for the MUT to meet since now the case is sub judice. The case will be heard in court on Wednesday," it said.