Update 2 | OPM demands clarification over teachers’ complaints

Female applicants sitting for interviews with the Directorate for Educational Services have been discriminately asked whether they have any immediate or future plans to have a baby, MUT president Kevin Bonello said.

“How do you expect to carry out this role properly when you have two children to look after?” female applicants were allegedly asked. “Do you intend to have children in the coming months soon after an eventual appointment?”

Discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation is illegal, strengthened and enforced by amendments and introduction of various laws by subsequent governments.

The Office of the Prime Minister has declared it had taken note of the MUT's complaint and said that it would demand a clear explanation on the matter. "If this allegation is true, the government will take immediate action. Such an action, if true, is unacceptable to this government."

In a letter sent to the Public Service Commission and the Ministry for Education, Bonello said the teachers’ union had received complaints about methodologies adopted by various interviewing boards.

“The Union has received various allegations that in some interviews female applicants were asked personal questions which are arguably illegal in this day and age,” Bonello said.

“Considering that these interviewing boards are treating with professionals in the field of education, the way the interviewing boards are being set up and the way some interviews have allegedly been conducted show a high degree of disrespect towards the various teaching professions.”

Bonello said the methodologies used by the interviewing boards smacked of amateurism and lack of knowledge on the areas for which the applicants signed.

According to the MUT, members have reported that many cases they were interrupted while giving answers, that they had to hurry up, that they had only a few seconds to answer a question.

One member reported that while answering questions put forward, an interviewer allegedly replied to his mobile phone and held a conversation.

In other cases members were contradicted and belittled while giving their answers to the questions, with some members being shouted at and being told they were wrong during the interview itself.

Bonello said that unlike past practices in the past, in most interviews, even for management level posts, at least two out of three interviewers were retired officers from other sectors unrelated to the Education sector: “They have little idea of what they are interviewing for. And this is amateurish, unprofessional, demeaning to interviewees. Because of this, the outcomes of these interviews will always remain questionable to the detriment of successful applicants.”

The MUT urged the Education Ministry and the Public Service Commission to intervene and ensure that a professional interviewing methodology is followed.

The Nationalist Party’s Forum for Equal Opportunities (FOIPN) expressed its disappointment at the allegations that some women were asked personal questions during job interviews and described such questions as both ‘discriminatory’ and ‘illegal’.

FOIPN asked the education ministry to investigate this particular case and to take disciplinary action against people who ask ‘unethical’ questions during job interviews.