The Malta Employers’ Association has called on the Government and the MUT to seek an immediate resolution to the current dispute “which is depriving children of education, and which is also creating hardships for companies and parents who had to reschedule their work commitments without notice.”

In a statement, the Association stated that the main culprit of the current impasse is lack of dialogue between the parties which should have planned in advance for an expected surge in Covid-19 cases following the festive season, rather than throwing such matters on the table just before schools were scheduled to open.

If the Ministry is saying that online learning had a mixed success due to different levels of commitment by teachers, action should have been taken against a minority that took advantage of the situation, rather than tarnishing everyone with the same brush, the MEA said.

“On the other hand, the union has to acknowledge that the ultimate losers of this situation are the students, who have already suffered disruptions in their education during 2020, and certainly cannot afford a repetition this year”, the union added.

Companies also cannot be expected to adapt overnight to a situation where many employees simply cannot turn up for work because of this chaos, they added.

“Under these circumstances, both Government and the Union have a shared responsibility to ensure an outcome that meets the interests of students, teachers, parents and their workplaces.”