The Malta Union of Teachers will be announcing further directives to teachers as no progress was registered in a meeting this morning called by the principal permanent secretary for unions representing government employees.

The MUT said the meeting was called following the joint negotiating team’s completion of a six-month comparative analysis study.

The MUT was represented by president John Bencini and senior vice-president Kevin Bonello. They looked forward to the government’s explanation of the study but were dismayed that the meeting was just a speech by the Finance Minister.

“The minister made it amply clear that no comparisons should be made between different grades.

“When requested to provide the said study report, the minister declined on the basis that this was intended for internal use by government. The MUT queries the scope of this meeting since the expected relevant information was not provided to the unions,” it said.

The union said its officials had already met Mr Fenech on January 20, when the joint negotiating team presented three power point slides and stated that teaching grades were not suffering anomalies.

“Apparently this whole study just took into account the take home pay of different grades irrespective of additional duties which have come into force since the last reform agreement,” the MUT said.

It said that in the circumstances the MUT sustained its position and would announce further directives shortly.