Industrial action by the Malta Union of Teachers at the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology will resume on Monday after no agreement was reached, the union said today.

Following intensive meetings between the MUT, the MCAST management and the Industrial Relations Unit (IRU), it is clear that there is no willingness from the IRU to reach an agreement on how to give lecturers what they are due, the MUT said in a statement.

This agreement expired more than a year ago and after long negotiations during this period, the IRU are using delaying tactics to stall negotiations in spite of reconciliation meetings.

In view of all this, the MUT is issuing a fresh list of directives to members to start as from Monday 22nd January 2018 and is announcing a strike of 2 hours each day between 10am and 12pm for Thursday 25 and Friday 26 January 2018.

The union had ordered industrial action in December but withdrew directives in early January, only to resort to fresh industrial action today.

MCAST expresses indignation and disappointment that MUT has resorted back and increased industrial actions

MCAST today expressed its strong indignation and disappointment at the fact that the MUT has decided to revert and increase industrial action following a series of long meetings which registered significant progress towards reaching a final agreement. The MUT action is completely surprising and unexpected since negotiations were still ongoing and another meeting was scheduled for next Tuesday after agreement from both sides to proceed with the discussions. It is therefore completely unacceptable that MUT have reactivated and increased industrial actions in this way, MCAST said.

To date agreement had been reached on a number of issues.

• Agreement had been reached to increase the maximum salary for all lecturers to the maximum level proposed by MUT for 2018.

• Agreement had been reached on the introduction of a new Senior lecturer grade.

• Agreement had been reached on more flexibility in the core hour system which gives greater flexibility to lecturers on when they need to be on campus.

• Agreement had also been reached to include a number of new family friendly measures within the Collective agreement for the first time.

• MCAST is also offering to more than double the work resource allowance presently given to lecturers and has also offered a higher rate of payment for additional work carried out by lecturers.

• For the first time a scale of additional payments with a higher payment rate for the writing of new study units is also being offered as part of the Collective Agreement.

MCAST has also expressed its willingness to continue negotiations on the teaching load of lecturers, the systems of work used during the month of September, eligibility criteria for grade progression and the strengthening of investment in the Professional Development of academic staff.

For all the above reasons, MCAST fails to understand the logic whereby MUT have decided to revert and increase industrial actions, thereby stalling negotiations once again at a stage when significant progress had been achieved and negotiations were still ongoing with a meeting scheduled for next Tuesday. Unfortunately it seems that MCAST students will now become victims of the internal politics within MUT which were the object of widespread media speculation over the last few days.

 

Throughout the negotiations, MCAST, together with the Industrial Relations Unit (IRU) of the Public Service, has shown a strong commitment to achieve a final solution to the new collective agreement. It is completely false that MCAST or IRU have shown any delaying tactics. On the contrary both MCAST and IRU have shown a strong commitment to give a very much improved package for MCAST academic staff.

It is therefore very disappointing that MUT has not shown the same commitment and decided to revert to industrial actions in the middle of negotiations, thereby jeopardising the whole negotiation process for no apparent reason, the college said.

MCAST said it strongly believed that a final agreement can only be reached around the negotiating table and not through unnecessary industrial actions. Such actions are only causing harm to MCAST students while serving to strongly hinder the possibility of achieving a final agreement. MCAST therefore appeals to MUT to suspend industrial actions once again so as to allow negotiations to continue and not to pander to elements within MUT who are using the internal tensions recently seen to push their own agenda