Academic staff at Junior College will be the beneficiaries of a new collective agreement which was signed between the Malta Union of Teachers and the University of Malta on Monday.
The collective agreement, which was signed on Monday, will see academic staff at Junior College enjoy a better pay packet, better work conditions, and also see the introduction of a Qualification Allowance for staff who have a PhD or second Masters qualification.
The Masters in Teaching and Learning was also recognised as a recruitment criteria for the post of Junior College Assistant Lecturer, Junior College Lecturer and Junior College Senior Lecturer 1.
The agreement also provides for a reduction in the number of years required for academic staff to progress from an assistant lecturer to a lecturer and then to a senior lecturer 1.
This is while the Academic Enhancement Leave will be reduced by an aggregate of eight years of service.
“We recognise that the drivers of learning who create our children’s successes are educators, and that’s why the best investment we can make as a country, as we are seeing in this collective agreement, is to sustain what we are giving our educators,” Education Minister Clifton Grima said.
He said that this same investment will be seen when talks with the Malta Union of Teachers for a new collective agreement for educators open in January next year.
Chief Permanent Secretary Tony Sultana said that this is the 12th collective agreement which the public service has concluded in the last five months.
The MUT said in a statement that it was good to celebrate the agreement, but noted that one cannot forget what the union had gone through to get to that point.
The previous collective agreement expired in 2018, and the past three and a half years had been characterised by negotiations, arguments, industrial action, recognition issues, and even a teachers’ walkout earlier this year.
The agreement retroactively covers from 2019 right up until the end of 2023.
“At the end of next year, we will start looking forward for the next agreement,” the MUT said.
University of Malta Rector Prof. Alfred J. Vella said that the agreement is evidence of the importance which the University gives to Junior College, which prepares hundreds of students every year to continue with their studies at tertiary level.
The agreement was signed by Marco Bonnici, Elaine Germani, Claudette Mintoff, Christopher Vella and Fr Jose Debono for the MUT and by Alfred J. Vella and Karmenu Vella for the University of Malta.