The MCAST Principal, Stephen Vella, told this newsroom that collective agreements should be negotiated long before they are due to expire.

When Vella took over the position of CEO and Principal late last year, having previously been deputy principal, one of the hurdles Vella faced was leading the institution during an industrial dispute with the MUT. Asked how he navigated this, Vella said the situation was complicated by the fact that MCAST's collective agreement had been delayed for three years. "It was a learning curve, but the result was very positive," he said, noting that the €45 million agreement will benefit staff at MCAST over the five years covered in the agreement (which is backdated from January 2022). A new collective agreement with the Malta Union of Teachers was this year finally signed, but it was years after the former one had expired.

The delays had resulted in the Malta Union of Teachers declaring an industrial dispute, and industrial action had taken place. This impacted not only the lecturers themselves, but also students. The long, drawn out process wasn't fair on either of the two groups.

The delay in a new agreement was unfair and unjust. It is positive that the whole situation was resolved, but that situation must never come to be again, and it is good to hear that the MCAST principal seems to have learnt from that whole ordeal.

The agreement that was signed this year was backdated, meaning that it will expire in 2027. This also means that new discussions will soon have to commence. The MCAST head's words indicate that the situation that the institution found itself in will not be repeated, and one hopes that it will be a smooth process.

The government signed a flurry of collective agreements this year aside from that of MCAST, and the importance of negotiating within a good timeframe cannot be stressed enough. But the MCAST situation wasn't the only collective agreement which was finalised after it had expired. A similar situation was also seen at ITS, although the Malta Union of Teachers has said that "traditionally, negotiations at MCAST and at ITS proceeded in parallel, owing to the vocational stream and to the parallelism of the two institutions."

In 2024 the government and the same union signed a new sectoral agreement with the Government covering educators in state schools, but even here, there were delays which caused tensions. That delay had seen industrial action, including a one day strike.

In all three negotiations - MCAST, ITS and state school educators - agreements were found that were seemingly positive for all involved, but the rocky road to reach those agreements surely could have been avoided.

The MCAST Principal's statement, that collective agreements should be negotiated long before they are due to expire, should be heeded by all public sectors, especially the education sector which saw so many issues arise because of delays in collective or sectoral agreement negotiations. The dragging of feet would just be damaging.