Long disputed sectoral agreement between government and MUT signed

The Malta Union of Teachers has reached an agreement with Ministry for Education and Employment on matters concerning mostly state school teachers.

The agreement led to the signing of a new a Sectoral Agreement which will be effective between 2018 and 2022, following intense negotiation processes and orders for industrial action directives by the MUT.

Education Minister Evarist Bartolo presided over the signing ceremony of the sectoral agreement with the Malta Union of Teachers this morning.

The first implementation will take place immediately, and will see a new implementation to oversee that all measures agreed upon would be implemented well and in time, Permanent Secretary of Education Minister Frank Fabri said.

Earlier this year, MUT had declared a trade dispute with the government, in relation to the financial stage of sectoral agreement negotiations, with the key demand being a substantial salary increase.  

After industrial action and a plan for a strike, the government met teachers’ demand for a 20% salary increase, prompting the union to call off a planned strike.

“If the agreement had not been reached, I don't think I could have remained minister,” Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said. “I wouldn't have been able to answer my conscience and carry on doing my work.”

He said that now, he believed that they were giving educators the suitable conditions to carry out their work properly.

“We cannot take care of our children if we do not take care of our educators,” he said.

The agreement will see better solutions and conditions for teachers and students alike, changing the system to better suit the change in the socio-demographic culture of the 21st century.

“As an educator and father, I am happy to say that this is a new phase which will benefit the educational sector greatly,” Fabri said.

The agreement will see a significant improvement of teaching conditions, including a better financial package for teachers, as well as attracting more young people to the profession. Teachers will also benefit from a work resources fund to help them further their work.

Teachers will also be given more training, up to 360 hours with which they could progress quicker in their career.

The syllabi will be changed as well, giving teachers more autonomy and freedom in their classroom.

More vocational subjects will also be introduced, while children will also benefit from up to 50 more hours of learning time.

New forms of assessments will also come into play, Fabri said, as not all children learn and should be tested in the same way.

Thanking everyone involved in the agreement, MUT President Marco Bonnici said that he could now sleep easy, knowing that our educators are being treated right.

“Only educators and children of the next generation can properly judge this new agreement,” he said. “Our aim is to create a better service both for teachers and students.”

A student, head of school, and primary teacher were also invited to the ceremony, to voice their needs and hopes for the educational sector.

Claire Debono, head of St.Clare College, said that more alternative programmes starting from primary level were necessary for children so to give them the chances they deserve. “Teachers need more autonomy in their lessons, and to decide on the pedagogy of teaching.”

The Agreement concerns all state school teachers, with the financial aspects pertaining church school educators, and was signed following a wide-consultation process where Union members were provided with the measures of the Sectoral Agreement and asked to provide feedback on each.

It also lays out the expected development of the education sector for the next five years, planning to invest in educators and improve their conditions so as to provide the best educational experience for students and properly acknowledge the work of teachers.

The Union said that the agreement will improve the services provided by teachers while recognising the complexity of the work involved. Further professional development of educators will also be improved through the improvement of practices and by offering new opportunities. The work of educators will be further incentivised by the agreement, which will also seek to do justice to grades which have fallen behind others.

In a comment during the press conference, the MUT President stated that “we've heard so much about the current crisis and we hope that in the coming years we will be seeing a better situation in our sector, with improvements to persuade young people to get into the profession while making sure that educators already in service continue with their much-needed work.

The agreement has been the focus of much of the Union’s energy since the beginning of this legislature and we hope that results will speak better than any speech we might deliver today. We now look forward to make sure that all the new positive measures mentioned in this Agreement are implemented in the agreed time-frames.”