Teachers in state schools are shaking off "added" responsibilities in a bid to send a message to the government that they are doing more than they are paid for.
They will not be distributing food to children, attending school council meetings, carrying out college-based work or cleaning after students, among other tasks.
The industrial action started yesterday after the Malta Union of Teachers issued an extensive list of directives as the stalemate with the government continued over the payment of allowances.
The Education Ministry described the directive not to clean after students as detrimental to their health at a time when there was an emphasis on hygiene because of the swine flu.
It said it could not understand why the union had resorted to industrial action once the government had offered to reopen negotiations on the 2007 education reform agreement.
The union had proposed amendments to the agreement last year mainly consisting of an increase in teachers' allowances.
The ministry added that on Friday it would be holding a meeting with all unions representing the various civil service employee sectors. The aim was to discuss a recent report in which the government compared various sectoral agreements.
The MUT had been complaining about discrepancies in teachers' allowances compared to those of other civil service employees.
Last July, the Finance Ministry set up a team to look into the allowances issue and, six months later, union president John Bencini warned that industrial action would be taken if the investigation was not completed by January 1.
Last week, the ministry informed the union it had found no anomalies in allowances given to teachers as compared to the rest of the civil service. In reaction to this the union ordered industrial action aimed at highlighting that teachers were not being paid for all their responsibilities.
"The government is not compensating teachers for new responsibilities they are being burdened with, and these directives therefore reduced some of these responsibilities," MUT vice-president Kevin Bonello said.
"None of the directives directly affects schoolchildren and their parents but are directed solely at the responsibilities imposed on teachers without compensation," he added.
The ministry, in reaction, pointed out that the average annual salaries and allowances of teachers had increased to €22,027 this year from €15,720 in 2005. It added that certain posts, like school heads and assistant heads, deserved their salaries to be revised to better reflect their responsibilities.
The union has directed state school teachers to stop carrying out college-based work that is not specific to their school and not to attend school council meetings.
Teachers, learning support assistants and kindergarten assistants are to stop attending any kind of meeting before, during or after school hours including guidance meetings and staff briefings. This will not apply to meetings concerning students' welfare or well-being.
Teachers are to stop participating in meetings with parents or guardians outside parents' days or parents' evenings unless the students' welfare is concerned.
Teachers were also instructed to stop cleaning toys or resources used in the classroom and distributing milk or foodstuffs. Mr Bonello said this should not affect the weekly distribution of fresh fresh fruit and vegetables launched by the government. This food could be distributed by minor staff and only a few state schools have a lack of this type of staff.