Educators have lost trust in the Malta Union of Teachers after negotiating and agreeing to a weak sectoral agreement which failed to properly address the sectors growing concerns when it came to salaries and working conditions, Executive Head of the Union of Professional Educators Graham Sansone has told The Malta Independent.

Speaking in an interview, Sansone highlighted that the agreement, in principle, failed to follow basic trade union requirements by not seeking a vote from the members of the union.

“The agreement was signed without a vote, and then once it was published there was an outburst from educators. You cannot blame them for questioning when they examine the details,” Sansone said further explaining that the increase had incorporated the sectoral agreement signed by the government with all state employees.

In the interview, Sansone also raised concerns that Minister Evarist Bartolo and Permanent Secretary Frank Fabri were yet to respond to invitations for a meeting the union has sent.

The union, which formed last January, was formed as a result of these discrepancies, Sansone said, further elaborating that he felt that he needed to represent the members who had lost their faith in the trade union.

“I had a choice either to stay quiet and remain with the council and remain in the union at the risk of losing my credibility or take action. I am not in an office, I have to go back to workplace meet other workers on the ground.”

MUT is a well-established union. What spurred you on to start a new teaching union?

Last June, Marco Bonnici was elected with a slim six-vote majority. The whole council supported Bonnici, including myself. He had pledged to open negotiations for four collective agreements, the state schools, church schools, ITS and MCAST, at once and conclude them within six months. The only agreement that has been signed so far was for the public sector. The council had first met in September to discuss the initial financials of the agreement. After the first meeting, he began to give us small details about the negotiations. We were always told that it would be a 20% increase but we were never provided with further breakdown of how this would be allocated.

We had another meeting to discuss the percentages, which was not enough time to properly analyse the increase. A vote was taken, some colleagues and I voted against it, but the majority voted in favour.

After going to the ministry and getting the agreement, there had to be a consultation process. However, all it constituted was a 10 to 15 question survey, most of which were vague, such as ‘Do you want a pay-rise?’, with a simple ‘agree’ or ‘disagree’ option.

Naturally, the percentages came quite high and Bonnici took the results as if they were a vote. In trade unionism, it is a basic principle that once an agreement has been reached between the union and the government, the agreement must go to a vote amongst the union members.

The agreement was signed without a vote, and then once it was published there was an outburst from educators. You cannot blame them for questioning when they examine the details. The 20% increase incorporates the sectoral agreement which was signed six months prior, which teachers had already started to benefit from. I would say that the real increase was within the single digits, while the conditions of work have not improved at all, given that it was made clear that any increase in workload should mean an increase in pay.

Bonnici and his negotiation team gone around every school during the election months, so they knew exactly what educators wanted.

He had once released a statement saying that educators do not understand the percentages. It is as though he is insulting their intelligence.

I believed that both candidates in the election for President had the ability to enact the change that was needed. However, I was disappointed with my own trade union when I saw this outcry. I was elected with the highest number of votes within the council, and I had a number of people begin to approach me and question whether I was in favour of this agreement.

The internal Facebook group of MUT was inundated with negative comments and groups were formed to combat the agreement. I had a choice either to stay quiet and remain with the council and remain in the union at the risk of losing my credibility or take action. I don’t work in an office, I have to go back to the workplace meet other workers on the ground.

We needed to address that there are members who do not trust MUT anymore.

Why join UHM Voice of the Workers?

A new union needs capital and infrastructure, and UHM, which is the second largest union in Malta, provides that. UHM offers a service level agreement, which allows UPE to be completely independent, yet have a support system. It has really helped us. If you were to compare our structure to MUT now, we have a really good infrastructure, so when people call or email they’ll always have someone who is there. We are able to use a decentralised system that is able to reach a wide net of people. We also have a collective bargaining unit, which is specifically trained to handle negotiations, who work across the public sector in general, and are able to take other achievements that have been made in other sectors and apply them to this sector.

Regarding the collective agreement for educators in state schools, in your opinion, what would have been a realistic increase?

It depends. The government is currently introducing new reforms, and here is the problem. Rather than look at the text for the new reforms and then negotiate the financials, MUT chose to do the opposite, which is illogical.

While there has been an increase in the wages of teachers, independent school teachers have now fallen behind. Has enough been done in terms of teacher’s wages?

In general, LSEs and teachers are reaching out because they do not trust the MUT any more. It is tough when it comes to independent schools. The union will push for that salary, but it’s not easy given the effect the increase of expenses could have on privately-owned schools. I do think that the government was not wise enough to examine the situation and have enough insight on the effects the agreement could have on the wider sectors of church and independent schools. If you fail to subsidise these independent and church schools you could eventually create a problem within the education system.

Reforms are due to place and teachers are complaining of the increased workload the assessments that will place on them throughout the scholastic year, have you received any complaints?

Over the last year, the ministry has been proposing the introduction of the Learning Outcome Frameworks, which is going to massively increase the workload of educators. MUT agreed to it and signed it, and now they’re trying to negotiate and control what is about to be issued about government after they weakened their position. The increase won’t necessarily increase school hours but it encroaches on their personal lives. After hours they already have a lot of work to do in terms of preparation of lessons and homework, and now they’re going to involve further preparation of forms and comments. I believe that summer is going to the first when people don’t even have to complain that they take summer for a ride, which I can assure is already absolutely not the case.  Some educators also have part-time jobs to supplement their income, this will be impossible now. The salaries simply do not reflect the increased workload.

It is no secret that the country is experiencing a shortage in teachers and LSEs. What can be done to change this?

 When it comes to the shortage, there are many factors - salary is one, but there is also conditions of work and respect, both from authorities and society in general, .

With regards to respect from the ministry this has not been the case recently but I think we should say that the conditions of work have improved, but there is still room for progress, especially in terms of security. Seeing teachers get beaten up by a student’s parent must make other educators ask why they are going through all this hassle for this kind of pay.

Teaching now requires a master’s degree. Is the union in favour?

The MTL course is now five-years and we understand the rationale as it respects the Bologna agreement. However, removing PGSE was a big mistake. We believe that there is need for an increased number of contact hours with children for greater practice, and this should have just been included in the bachelor’s course. The length, which is the same a law degree, must discourage people from entering the course. If there was an attractive salary then it would be worth it. Can I ask of the two who is given more respect?

MCAST in particular has faced a number of issues when it comes to the collective agreements. Has the union got involved?

We are monitoring the situation closely and have kept quiet intentionally. Not because we do not want to get involved, but we want to wait to see what will happen in the coming months. Nothing seems to have been achieved after those strikes in December, there is still a stalemate and I am wondering what has happened to the six-month deadline Bonnici gave himself a year ago. MCAST is a particular institution given that you have different levels of educators, some of whom are industry professionals, so the salary needs to be examined in terms of the whole spectrum. I am confident that if it were in our hands we would have come to an agreement by now. Unfortunately when you open four agreements at one time, it gives you a mountain to climb.

Results keep on dropping, with only 34 percent of students getting their full Matriculation certificate this year, and one out of three A-level students managed to get the grades needed in order to gain entry into the University of Malta. Who is to blame?

There are many factors. It’s true that today’s generation in general, though hard-working and ambitious, is too focused on distractions, which reduces the concentration of students. From an educational aspect. I think the system is failing students. I said in the past that education is in a free-fall because we do not allow professionals to teach in a diverse way. Rather than allow them to be free and express themselves in the style of teaching, which is what they were trained to do, we seek to contain them with strict guidelines. I am actually considering asking the minister whether we should give teachers an office rather than a classroom.

And have you made contact with the ministry?

Yes, we are in communication with the ministry on a daily basis and have worked well with the directorate. With Permanent Secretary Frank Fabri and Education Minister Evarist Bartolo it is a different story despite the number of invitations we have sent. This does not mean we cannot operate, but I believe it is important we need to have a meeting, although the decision making is not being done by the minister himself. We are always getting things done and we are intent of solving any problems we have. We believe in the importance of dialogue rather than issuing directives like pastizzi. All that does is show that the union cannot negotiate.