The Malta Union of Teachers said yesterday that in the past few days, the end of this scholastic year, it had received various reports of Heads or Assistant Heads of Schools who took advantage of their position to harass a number of teachers while discussing the Performance Management Programme (PMP) with them.

The PMP is an annual evaluation exercise on the performance of teachers during the scholastic year.

MUT said that it had received reports from some teachers who alleged that their Heads humiliated them, some of whom even wrote personal remarks about their teachers.

Some teachers also said that they were not given a copy of the PMP and that they were forced to fill in their reactions in front of their Heads without being allowed to take it home and consult others.

The union said that mutual respect is vital for success at the work place and also noted how the EU, by means of a number of Directives, has defined the right for every worker to be given adequate protection from harassment at the place of work.

MUT said that despite doing its best to improve the situation, the reports kept coming year after year, and the number of abuses is on the increase.

The union said that so far, it has kept silent and has always tried to solve the problem internally. However, the problem is becoming more alarming because it is forcing teachers to stay away from discussing school matters with their superiors because of this negative treatment.

MUT finally called on the competent authorities to stop this abuse once and for all. Failing to do so, the MUT Council said it is determined to take every possible action to protect the dignity of its workers. It also declared that it is ready to identify those schools where these abuses are taking place.