October 25, 2017 at 12:19 pm
Press Release: MUT declares a trade dispute with Government, announces industrial actions across the board
Following a meeting with the Ministry for Education and Employment this morning, the MUT has declared a trade dispute with the Government in relation to the Sectoral agreement negotiations. The Union feels that in spite of positive reassurance, when it comes to tangible proposals educators are being short-changed with a financial proposal which on average would result in an increase over a number of years of less than 5%. The MUT is categorically not satisfied with this and expects a much better package in line with what was being proposed to value the work of educators and to tackle the current crisis. The Union is also negotiating two other agreements with the Government, the Collective agreement of MCAST and the Collective agreement of ITS. The MUT believes that the Government is dragging its feet in these negotiations and the current financial offer of the Sectoral agreement does not augur well on financials of these two agreements.
Speaking during the press conference, MUT President Marco Bonnici stated that “Prominent members of the Government have been saying for weeks now that educators have had the smallest increases in salaries and allowances throughout all the negotiations that happened in the past ten years and more. The Union submitted its financial proposals in summer that requested compensation for the additional work introduced in the past years. The MUT gave the Government ample time to come back with proposals. However, after endless meetings and many promises, no acceptable financial proposal has been presented to the Union.”
In view of this, the MUT is announcing that it shall be issuing a total of 50 directives for all grades in State and Church schools. The latter are included as negotiations also affect directly the financial package for grades at these schools. The first set of directives shall be effective on Monday 30th October and the Union shall announce an incremental number of directives on a daily basis. The Union is also ordering a one-day strike for all grades in State and Church Schools on Wednesday 8th November, and a one-hour strike for all grades at MCAST and ITS on the same day.
