Industrial action in schools will be reviewed, even possibly stepped up, on Monday and the Malta Union of Teachers is calling on teachers to attend a mass rally on February 22.
However, the union does not plan to wait until then to announce new directives and will be looking into the 120-odd tasks teachers do outside their job description and issuing directives accordingly.
"The council will be meeting every Monday to review the directives, with the possibility of changing and increasing them," union senior vice-president Kevin Bonello said.
This week, the union issued a number of directives to teachers, learning support assistants and kindergarten assistants, asking them to refrain from attending any meetings, except those concerning students' welfare or in-service courses already under way.
They were also directed not to attend or take part in school councils and stop washing or cleaning toys, play materials or resources used in the classroom.
Moreover, all teachers, except those working in special schools and resource centres, were directed not to distribute milk and food or help in cleaning or its organisation.
Primary school teachers were instructed not to prepare agendas and take minutes or notes during curriculum development sessions.
Mr Bonello said the directives, including upcoming ones, would not affect children.
However, the Education Ministry has already described the directive not to clean up after students as detrimental to their health, especially because of the emphasis on hygiene to keep swine flu at bay.
When asked about this, Mr Bonello blamed the government for not replacing caretakers who retired and instead employed part-timers.
"There is not enough minor staff to do the necessary work," he said, adding that a particular school, which he refused to identify, had one caretaker for 500 pupils.
But a ministry spokesman said teachers used to clean children's toys before the dispute and stopped because of the directive rather than because of a lack of support staff.
Mr Bonello said the government had rejected a union proposal to send kindergarten children home 15 minutes early so that assistants could have time to clean toys. "It takes them about an hour to clean them," he said.
Mr Bonello said the increase in allowance was not being requested capriciously: "Responsibilities have increased and so should the allowances."
The majority of teachers have already received an annual €69.90 increase in their allowance in 2007 but the union is arguing this was nothing compared to hundreds of euros given to other professionals.
Although the union proposed new allowances, Mr Bonello said these would not be made public for the time being. "They reflect the allowances given to other professionals," he said, although this did not include doctors who received a hefty pay rise two years ago.
The union said a team set up by the Finance Ministry to look into teachers' allowances found no anomalies when compared to other civil servants, triggering the industrial action.
Mr Bonello said the union would be attending a meeting tomorrow regarding negotiations on collective agreements for various grades of the civil service.