Updated at 3pm

All lecturing grades, LSAs, technical grades and student services grades at the Malta Council for Arts Science and Technology have been ordered to go on strike for two hours on February 22 and 23.

The Malta Union of Teachers said on Friday that following the withdrawal of a court mandate by Mcast, it attended three conciliation meetings but the outcome was unsatisfactory.

The mandate was filed after the union announced last month that educators at Mcast would be striking following months of discussions. Industrial action was suspended after a judge upheld a request for a warrant of prohibitory injunction following an application by Mcast. 

Read: Mcast, MUT in war of words after court stops strikes

"The MUT feels there is no goodwill from Mcast to treat educators at par with other post-secondary institutions as confirmed when, rather than seeking a solution, Mcast tried to silence educators. It is also evident that the whole court procedure only served to delay matters," the union said.

It said that in view of all this, it had no other option but to again announce industrial action.

Besides the strike action, the union also ordered the same staff to refrain from publishing and/or supplying any type of assignment result, and/or grade, and/or related feedback in any form.

Mcast still believes in negotiation

Mcast insisted that it has consistently shown goodwill to reach an agreement for the benefit of its staff and students, noting that it had withdrawn legal action against MUT "as a gesture of goodwill".

It added that it had tabled substantially improved working conditions for its staff during every conciliation meeting it attended.

"Mcast will continue to show goodwill to achieve a solution and is confident that the recent conciliation meetings have achieved good progress. Mcast believes that these meetings can reach a successful outcome if talks continue around the negotiation table."

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.