Updated 4.50pm
All MUT members in all church and state schools have been ordered to strike all day on November 8 and those at Mcast and the Institute of Tourism Students one hour.
Addressing a news conference today, Malta Union of Teachers president Marco Bonnici said the strike will be the culmination of 50 directives the union was issuing its members, starting the first set on Monday and incrementing them daily.
The strike, Mr Bonnici said, was the result of a number of deadlines on financial proposals that continuously failed to be met.
The MUT has requested a pay rise of not less than 20 per cent. But the Education Ministry had only offered a five per cent increase over a period of five years.
“It is an insult to even consider the government’s proposals,” Mr Bonnici said.
He added that negotiations on the collective agreements of MCAST and ITS were moving at a snail’s pace, leading the union to also consider a longer strike for the two schools.
In a statement issued shortly after the press conference, the government said it was committed to strengthen teachers conditions after the profession was neglected for 25 whole years of Nationalist administration.
It hoped for an agreement with the union would be reached and said it was confident this would be achieved.
Negotiations had been going on for some time and a considerable number of points had been discussed, some of which had already been agreed upon.
The Education Ministry said that while it acknowledged the union’s right to order industrial action, it invited it to return to discussions with the aim of finalising the agreement.
The ministry said it would be regularly informing parents about the actions on the ministry’s website and via SMS.
'Teachers aren't feeling the surplus' - PN
Reacting to the news, the Nationalist Party said that MUT's scheduled strike action was proof that the Labour administration had no plan for the teaching profession.
"Teachers aren't feeling the much-vaunted surplus. Instead they're facing a crisis in both conditions and respect towards their profession," the PN said.
The PN statement prompted the Labour Party to react by saying the government was forced to tackle teaching issues from the bottom up because successive PN administrations "had ignored their needs for years."