The lecturers' unions yesterday called on members to withhold all future exam papers as part of industrial action which drew an angered reaction from the government.
During a rally held yesterday afternoon, the University of Malta Academic Staff Association and the Malta Union of Teachers ordered all full-time and part-time academic staff at the University and the Junior College to withhold all end-of-semester examination papers. If the exams have been held or their papers have already been submitted, then the scripts are not to be collected.
The move provoked an angry joint statement from the Finance and Education Ministries, which said that once again the unions had chosen "to make the students a victim of their industrial actions". "The ministries want to make it clear that it is not the government who is delaying the negotiation process," the statement said.
The exchange comes almost a month-and-a-half after 176 lecturers out of 178 rejected the financial package offered to them by the government.
Before that, a one-day strike had been called aimed at nudging the University management into rethinking the financial package which is the main bone of contention between the two parties, who accuse each other of being unrealistic. On December 5 the unions instructed their members to work to rule - a directive that remains in force.
Yesterday, the unions stepped up their action, directing their members to boycott all university and Junior College boards, departments, committees, sub-committees, faculties and senate meetings, excluding any research fund committee, academic work resources funds, staff development and scholarship committees and interviews to recruit new staff.
The academic staff was also instructed to withhold any results related to continuous assessment.
Umasa president Victor Buttigieg told members at the rally that last week union officials held a meeting with Education Minister Dolores Cristina and Finance Minister Tonio Fenech after having submitted their counterproposals to the government's last offer.
During that meeting, Mr Fenech criticised the two unions and asked to meet a delegation of chosen Umasa officials with a mandate to sign the collective agreement, without going back to consult the union's members, Dr Buttigieg said.
This, he insisted, was unacceptable. "The government can't tell us how to run the union and I will not tolerate this behaviour."
He said the union could not give in to the request because its statute stipulates that members have to be consulted before any collective agreement is signed. "We are at an impasse. The directives are not pleasant and will affect people negatively but we must conclude the whole story which has been dragging on since May 2007," he said.
The ministries also referred to the meeting, saying that Umasa had asked to re-negotiate crucial points in the collective agreement which had already been agreed upon, simply because its members did not accept the government's financial package. The ministries said they were still open to talks but insisted there would be no negotiations unless Umasa officials, chosen by their members, were given a mandate to negotiate, conclude and sign the collective agreement.
Should Umasa not come up with such a mandate, there were only two options available: refer the case to the industrial tribunal or restart the negotiations from scratch.