'Pay educators what they deserve, now' says PN, as union talks drag on

The opposition Nationalist Party (PN) said it expects the government to introduce long-awaited improvements to teachers’ wages without delay, saying that it was time for them to start being paid properly after months of delay.

In a statement on Saturday, Justin Schembri and Ivan Castillo, shadow ministers for education and tackling cost of living respectively,  called Prime MInister Robert Abela a “miser”  over the long-drawn out negotiations on salary improvements for teachers and educators.

The teaching profession deserved better, said the Opposition, adding that adequate salaries and conditions of work were one of the PN’s leading priorities, pointing out that it had been campaigning for “considerable improvements” in this regard for several months now.

“The PN notes that the Government and educators are still negotiation the sectoral agreement… [and] expects Robert Abela and Clifton Grima to introduce the salary increases that all teachers were promised without delay, after last November’s nation-wide school strike because the Government did not propose a fitting financial package to the Union.”

The party said that, while it understood the sensitive nature of these negotiations, of which it is not involved, it also understood that all teachers “now had to be given what they deserved, what by right should be theirs, after months of waiting….”

Thanking the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT) for negotiating on behalf of all sector workers, the PN encouraged it to maintain “a transparent and completely accessible” negotiation process, and appealed to the Government to “recognise once and for all, the priceless tool it has in the professionals who serve our country’s children.”

Every passing day is a lost opportunity to make teachers and educators feel appreciated, needed and respected by the Government, said the PN, adding that it was making the same appeal with regard to lecturers at MCAST, who are also in the middle of negotiating for better conditions. MCAST lecturers deserved the same respect afforded to other lecturers “who teach at the highest MQF levels,” it said.

Schembri and Castillo said the PN was pledging its commitment to the education sector, “because it believes that education is the consummation of social and economic development. We stress that the investment made in all teachers and educators is also an investment in children and young people.”