Abela announces government getting closer to agreeing new MCAST collective agreement

Prime Minister Robert Abela announced on Wednesday government and the teachers’ union are getting close to agreeing a new collective agreement for MCAST lecturers.

In an interview on TVM’s Popolin, he said a new pay package, if an agreement is reached between government and the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT), would be well over the €35 million announced late last year.

The union and MCAST have been locked in negotiations over a new collective agreement for the past two years.

The collective agreement involves eight grades and includes lecturing grades, student support services grades, student mentors, and directors, LSEs, technicians’ grades, and senior research officers.

The last collective agreement was signed in 2018 and expired in December 2021.

At the beginning of the current academic year, MUT declared a trade dispute with MCAST. This has led to directives affecting students, causing disruptions to their education and creating a backlog of work that needs to be addressed alongside preparations for the ongoing academic year.

The directives were suspended last month, with the suspension still in place, so that students can receive their first semester marks.

On Wednesday, the PM said a draft text has been drawn up, and while details are being hashed out, the different parties in the negotiations are getting closer.

Abela said the government has two priorities: ensuring educators work in good conditions, with a sustainable pay packet which is in line with other sectors’ collective agreement, and ensuring students are not “victims” of industrial action.

“Students should be left out of negotiations, it is not right that they are victim of industrial action, even in the context that government’s pay packet is a substantial one,” Abela said.