(Adds university reaction)
The University said that the text of a new collective agreement for university lecturers had been finalised and agreed upon in principle and it was only issues pertaining to the financial package that were pending.
In a statement issued after the Malta Union of Teachers and the University of Malta Academic Staff Association ordered lecturers to boycott the opening ceremony of the academic year tomorrow, the university said that the rector wished to emphasise that he had been personally involved in the drafting of the agreement and had also had several meetings with the government to assist with the process of negotiation of the financial package.
Unions ordered the protest as talks with the government over pay remain stalled. They said in a statement this morning that their financial claims were based on the fact that academic staff were already grossly underpaid under the present conditions.
"Over the past 20 years, the academic staff salaries have fallen consistently further behind when compared to the national GDP/capita, while real productivity has increased at least threefold (e.g. staff:student ratio has fallen from 1:9 in 1986 to about 1:25 today, while the number of teaching programmes, the research output, and amount of procured external funds has grown by several orders of magnitude)."
They said that the new collective agreement would further improve productivity, efficiency, accountability, and profitability at the University.
Furthermore, all of the university's performance output was measured against an international yardstick (skills acquired by graduates, research funding obtained, publications, criteria for promotion, etc.).
"Thus, in order to enable us to perform and compete in the international arena, the working conditions here should be similar to those of overseas universities.
They also pointed out that "a very comparable sector of the workforce in Malta" had very recently set a very clear, and perfectly justified, local benchmark for very highly qualified personnel in public service.
The unions said a conciliation meeting in the presence of the Director of Industrial Relations last Thursday morning, and a meeting with the Minister of Finance last Friday afternoon, failed to resolve the issue.
"The Minister has repeated the age-old argument that the country’s finances do not permit the requested salaries. So, the government expects the academic staff to continue to subsidise the nation’s excellent tertiary education system through our own personal pockets! This has to stop. It is time to seriously stand up for our dues," the unions said.
Instead of tomorrow's ceremony, the academic staff were told to attend a rally.
KSU urged all parties concerned to work for a consensus that would be beneficial to all to be reached.
It called for goodwill in the interest of students, academics and the country.
KSU also called on the government to continue investing in the University financially and with human resources.
It said there should be further incentives for direct and indirect investment from the private sector.