A meeting with Education Minister Evarist Bartolo on Monday did little to improve the stalemate between the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology and the teachers’ union.
Talks between the Malta Union of Teachers and Mcast have stalled over discussions on the financial package of a new collective agreement.
The agreement for Mcast educators expired in December 2016, but talks resumed later in 2017, after being delayed by the general election and MUT’s own internal election.
Monday's meeting revolved around “divergences” between the two parties, a MUT spokesman said, adding that industrial action was still on the table.
An industrial directive ordering Mcast staff to refrain from publishing or supplying assignment results or feedback in any form was still in place, the spokesman said.
Over 90 per cent of Mcast staff held a two-hour strike last Thursday and Friday after months of back-and-forth negotiations between union and college.
MUT had originally ordered a strike at the end of January but Mcast filed a prohibitory injunction barring the action from going through. The court action was later dropped on orders of the Education Ministry.
Does not give due importance to vocational sectors
Last week, Mcast and MUT had five conciliation meetings, all of which failed to make any headway in resolving disagreements, MUT president Marco Bonnici said.
Mr Bonnici also accused Mcast of trying to create “second-class and third-class educators” over a new financial proposal. The proposal offered the same conditions enjoyed by Junior College lecturers to Mcast lecturers who have the same qualifications.
Read: Should MCAST educators be paid the same as Junior College lecturers?
Mr Bonnici said that the proposal did not give the due importance to vocational sectors, since these often do not have the same qualifications as traditional academic sectors.
The Mcast administration retaliated by insisting that it was offering the best collective agreement it had ever offered “in its 16-year history”.
Mcast president Silvio De Bono said the college was offering an agreement that would benefit all Mcast educators, not just those who meet Junior College educators’ criteria.
Further meetings are expected later this week.