The Malta Union of Teachers stressed that confusion over pay rises in the sectoral agreement stems from the fact that they were not able to publish actual figures, but only percentages, as government told the union not to publish the financials anywhere.

MUT Head Marco Bonnici indicated that the MUT will not agree to such a move again, and believes government did not want the finance figures published due to other agreements it is handling with other unions.

On 21 December, following intense and long-winding negotiation and consultation processes, the Malta Union of Teachers had found agreement with the Ministry for Education and Employment and signed a new Sectoral Agreement for the years 2018 to 2022. The agreement will affect all state educators in the country, with the financial aspects also reflecting on educators working in Church schools, for the next five years. Amongst other objectives, the aims were to improve working conditions and teachers salaries, and better the service for students. A change in syllabi, as well as moving further away from the 'traditional and regimental' educational paradigm in order to make it "more humane", are also central to the agreement.

Agreement was reached after threats to strike. Reports read however, that only teachers with years of experience were getting the 20% pay increase over five years however, and not all teachers, thus leading to problems.

Explaining the financial situation in depth, MUT Head Marco Bonnici told the press that teachers who have hit their 20th year of employment would see an increase, in comparison to their 2017 salary, of 14% in 2018, 18.8% in 2019, 24.4% in 2020, 29.3% in 2021, and 32.2% in 2022.

New teachers in 2017, he said, would see, as a percentage increase of their 2017 salary, of  10% in 2018, 17% in 2019, 26% in 2020, 33% in 2021, and 39% in 2022.  This means, he said, that percentage wise both new and old teachers would see a similar increase by the end of the period. This, he said, is an explanation as to why some will see a lower increase then others in different years.

He explained that the rises will begin in the upcoming scholastic year.

He also said that the sectoral agreement pay increase includes the public sector agreement which was signed last April, and does not go over and above. He said that the MUT still managed to get more over and above that.

He said that there was a wide public consultation with members.

Today, a group of educators have announced that they will be forming a new union called the Union of Professional Educators (UPE) - Voice of the Workers. They are Rita Catania, David Rossi and George Debono, three former MUT council members who resigned from the union on Tuesday saying they learned about aspects of the new agreement signed with the government from the media. They argue that the complete printed version of the agreement was never presented to the MUT Council, and that the agreement presented to delegates was missing six pages.

In response to this however, Bonnici said that the six pages not presented dealt with financials, as government kept on insisting that they not be published.

Turning to the new teachers' union, Bonnici said that there has been movement since August, and said that a number of these members were involved. He said that the interest of these members came out clearly today, and that it was personal interest not in the interest of MUT.

He said he does not have any information of any other members switching over to the new union. He said that these three members had been making contact with other unions for months.

He said that the MUT will not stand for "lies and halftruths" that the three members or whoever is behind them, is saying, and that the MUT will not stand for its integrity being questioned.

He said that the reason for their resignation is clear, "that they were working in parallel for other interests, and that they stayed in the council to put spokes in the wheel."

"It was something clear from day one."

He said that there was a situation where everything said in the Council, everyone knew about, including those around the negotiating table.

He highlighted that one of the three persons who resigned is under investigation by the department, as the person blocked his or her timetable saying it was for MUT work. He said that without MUT approval, this person was taking three lessons, where MUT did not know where this person was on the back of MUT.

"The Ministry asked us what this was about, and we told them we did not know and never approved such a thing." He said that this was  abusive.

Government statement

The government said that the agreement reached with the MUT was based on the same parameters of other agreements reached with other sectors.

Under Nationalist governments, teachers were given small increases, so much so that teachers remained anchored at the bottom compared to other professionals working with the government,

Teachers' salaries will be gradually improved and other allowances will be introduced over four years, the government said.