The government has yet to confirm whether it would consider providing its educators with insurance, despite a formal request by the teachers’ unions being filed two weeks ago.
The Malta Union of Teachers filed an official request for all teachers to be covered by insurance recently after it was announced that members of the disciplined forces will be included under a new occupational insurance scheme.
Asked whether the government would be taking the request, which was also made by the other teachers’ union, the Union of Professional Educators (UPE), into consideration, the Education Ministry did not provide any replies, despite reminders. Nor did it say whether it would be meeting the unions to discuss the issue.
Times of Malta also sought information on the matter from the Finance Ministry after Edward Scicluna said during a press conference that claims will be handled by a specialised office.
In reply, a Finance Ministry spokesman said that the scheme “implemented an electoral pledge announced in the 2019 Budget” but gave no additional information on whether the unions’ request would be taken into consideration.
Nor would the spokesman say whether the Finance Minister had discussed the matter with the Education Minister, as seemed to be the case with the Home Affairs Minister when the insurance for the members of the disciplined forces was rolled out.
Coverage against injury and loss of earnings were being proposed
Earlier this week, the UPE reiterated its calls for the insurance cover during a press conference outside the Office of the Prime Minister, with union president Graham Sansone insisting that both indemnity insurance and coverage against injury and loss of earnings were being proposed as requirements.
Mr Sansone said that the union recently met Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Education Minister Evarist Bartolo to discuss the matter and they had been “receptive”.
On their part, the MUT has said that there is no need to “reinvent the wheel” to introduce insurance for educators, dismissing claims by the government that introducing such a scheme would require “a substantial amount of time”.
According to the MUT, the government had said that although the request would be “considered” it would require time to implement.
claire.caruana@timesofmalta.com