Updated - Adds minister's reaction.

The Malta Union of Teachers has decided to boycott the launch today of the National Minimum Curriculum framework because of delays and mistakes in the payment of allowance to teachers for supervision duties.

In a reaction, Education Minister Dolores Cristina said the MUT decision was an over-reaction.

Union president Kevin Bonello said at a press conference that this was not a political decision but purely an industrial one.

He said that teachers who opted to perform supervision duties during breaks and after school hours were entitled to an allowance of  €9.81 per hour.

In January the union registered an industrial dispute because payment for September and October, due in December, were not made. The union had set a February 11 ultimatum.

By February 11 payments were issued, but eight schools were left out completely and there were many mistakes in the payments made to the other teachers.

"We received a tsunami of phone calls from complaining teachers," Mr Bonello said.

A meeting was held with the education authorities and payments were issued for the teachers in the eight schools, but the mistakes continued.

Mr Bonello said such random, banal mistakes, were unacceptable since this was a matter of simple arithmetic. He did not know the reason - although somebody had mentioned software problems by a developer who had since left.

He warned that the MUT would issue directives for industrial action unless the mistakes were corrected quickly. 

On the minimum curriculum, Mr Bonello said the MUT had participated in the process for its drawing up and agreed with it.

EDUCATION MINISTER'S REACTION

In a reaction, Education Minister Dolores Cristina said she regretted the mistakes made in the payments, but the action taken by the MUT was disproportionate.