Teachers’ union threatens industrial action over Great Siege ‘fiasco’

MUT warns it will order industrial action on Monday if authorities don't resolve issue of commitment clashes faced by primary state school teachers 

The Malta Union of Teachers has warned that it will order industrial action in schools if the government doesn’t sort out the “fiasco” involving primary school teachers facing clashes between their school duties and participation in a state project to commemorate the 450th anniversary of the Great Siege.

In a statement, the MUT said that the government has until Monday to address this problem if it wants to avoid industrial action amongst teachers.

Some art, music and drama primary state school teachers have been chosen to help organize a show for the Great Siege anniversary. However, the MUT said that “a serious lack of coordination” between Directorates within the Education Ministry has led to these teachers having to cancel their lessons to participate in the show.

“The Great Siege activity has been planned since before the summer months and involves a large number of children and schools,” the MUT said. “Despite this, and despite the Directorate [for Quality and Standards in Education] knowing full well how many people would be involved in it, it still didn’t provide back-up teachers to schools to make up for the project.

“This means that, although educational authorities knew that this project could potentially result in a breach of the sectoral agreement, they showed utter lack of coordination and lack of respect towards teachers.”