The Union for Professional Educators has, after a month-long dispute with the Church schools’ central office, withdrawn directives it had issued to members.

The Secretariat for Catholic Education said on Monday that, following a meeting with the Union of Professional Educators on Friday, both sides clarified a number of issues and, in light of this, it had initiated legal procedures to also withdraw the injunction issued by the courts against the union.

“Both parties clarified that, when issues arise, the UPE will first contact the head of school and both parties will address the matter. If the issue is not resolved, the UPE will then contact the secretariat, which will work with the school and the UPE to resolve the issue,” the Church said.

The secretariat and the UPE had been at loggerheads for weeks over whether the union is empowered to issue directives to its members once it did not enjoy recognition as representing the majority of teachers and, thus, was not in a position to engage in collective bargaining.

To withdraw injunction issued by the courts against the union

The UPE has repeatedly insisted that, as a registered union, it could not be precluded from issuing such directives. Earlier this month, the union also accused the secretariat of harassing UPE members following the directives and had declared the dispute to be “serious”.

The majority of the directives issued in recent weeks were mainly aimed at learning support assistants and a few also applied to teachers.

Last week’s meeting came followed an unsuccessful conciliation attempt earlier.

The UPE, too, announced an agreement had finally been reached, pointing out that the secretariat would be “communicating with all its schools directing them about the concerns that led to the UPE’s directives”.