Following an ultimatum and a declaration of a trade dispute with the Ministry for Education, the Malta Union of Teachers said today it is issuing a set of nine directives to Student Services grades working with the Ministry for Education and the Secretariat of Catholic Education.

These directives are being issued following over 12 months of negotiations on a new agreement for these grades which include Counsellors, Career Advisors, Youth Workers, Resource Workers etc.

The Ministry is failing to recognise the importance of these grades even though these practitioners are resigning from their posts and there is a serious shortage which is affecting the service to students whereby schools have a minimum of personnel to address the growing needs of such services to students.

List of Directives:

1. No work on My Journey

2. No submission of annual and other reports

3. No submission of forecast

4. No answering of emails from management*

5. No answering of telephone calls from management*

6. No communication with management*

7. No attendance to meetings organised by management*

8. No new referrals to be accepted

9. No walk-in services to be accepted

*(management includes NSSS, school SMT, college Principals and personnel and the Secretariat for Catholic Education)

These directives shall come into force on Monday 22 July as repeated attempts to reach an agreement with the Ministry for Education and Employment have failed.

Ministry's response

 

Education Minister Evarist Bartolo, in response, said that the union issued a directive and took action that will result in students’ suffering as a result.

The minister said that the union did not accept proposals put forward by the ministry so that support services employees benefit from a financial package which would be more than is currently. Employees, the minister said, can benefit from career advancement in less time than was proposed by the union, and benefit from advances in new scalesthat, as of now, they do not reach.

The minister said that through these latest actions a number of services needed by students are being affected. Serious new cases of abuse, suicide, cases of a psychological nature and others will not be addressed by councillors as a result, the minister said.

Services offered to children up to the age of five with disability will also be affected, the minister said, amongst other services.