A court has ordered Ms Marlene Tua, as the principal of Garendon School in Zebbug, to pay three teachers a full-year’s salary as stipulated by a clause in the collective agreement between the school and the Malta Union of Teachers.

Maria Antonia Agius, Mary Azzopardi and Carmen Micallef Grimaud had been teachers for a “considerable amount of time” at Garendon School and were also members of the Malta Union of Teachers also for a “considerable amount of time”.

A copy of a collective agreement was presented, stipulating that should the school close or pass on to new owners, it is obliged to pay “termination benefits,” equivalent to one year full-pay.

The plaintiffs stated that as can be proved from JobsPlus (formerly ETC) termination forms at the time, their employment was terminated from 30 June 2013, where the reason provided was that the “business closed down”.

They also argued that after many efforts to resolve the situation and get paid their termination benefits, this was denied by the school on 21 February 2014. Ms Agius, Ms Azzopardi and Ms Micallef Grimaud said that the principal, Marlene Tua, had argued that the collective agreement was in fact expired.

Ms Tua argued that according to Maltese law, they could only ask for a debt to be repaid, and that the school had paid them everything that was owed to them, meaning full payment for the work they had carried out, and not one-year’s-salary as stipulated in the collective agreement, which she argued was expired on 31 August 2002. Furthermore, she argued that even if the collective agreement had been in effect, a clause stipulates that they are only entitled to termination benefits should the school have closed down, which she said was not the case.

The courts noted however that it was Ms Tua herself who indicated that their employment had been terminated due to school closure, as listed on the JobsPlus document, and could therefore not make that argument.

Madam Justice Jacqueline Padovani Grima, presiding over the case, found that the collective agreement between the Malta Union of Teachers and the school in question had been breached, and ordered Ms Tua to pay Ms Agius €16,401, Ms Azzopardi €23,382 and Ms Micallef Grimaud a total of €19,431.