Teachers defamed by untrue allegations demand MCAST apology

Five teachers have sued the Malta College for Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST) as well as its former head of human resources Josephine Abdilla, over an internal inquiry that unjustly blamed them over untrue allegations.

The lawsuit comes hot on the heels of a 2021 investigation by MaltaToday, which revealed that a ministerial inquiry’s conclusions four years before, and kept under wraps, had disproven Abdilla’s owns allegations of corruption against MCAST. The allegations were made only after she was placed on forced leave following complaints by her co-workers.

The so-called Bonello inquiry in fact revealed that Abdilla was reviled by staff and teachers for her abrasive and suborning behaviour. Her defamation suit a year later against MaltaToday’s reports on the inquiry, proved unsuccessful.

The five plaintiffs, lecturers who were in 2017 tasked with the Pathway to Independent Living Programme for students with learning disabilities, now accuse the College of having carried out an unjust internal inquiry into allegations made against them.

Pathway inquiry in 2017

Specifically, two of the five teachers received written warnings for insubordination after a hastily-convened inquiry by the MCAST board of governors on a Pathway live-in – an annual stay inside an apart-hotel for the students with learning disabilities to apply ‘daily living’ skills acquired in the programme.

The Pathway inquiry (unconnected to the later Bonello report) had been triggered by claims made by Josephine Abdilla’s assistant, Denise Galea Pirotta, in an exit interview. But none of the five teachers were aware that the allegations consisted of accusations of inappropriate, possibly criminal, sexual behaviour.

These allegations in fact only came to light during Abdilla’s unsuccessful defamation proceedings against MaltaToday, during which the Bonello report was produced as evidence. Although itself unconnected to the earlier Pathway inquiry, it referred to the serious allegations of “indecent sexual behaviour, intimidation and aggression, and sharing of alcohol” made during the live-in.

The teachers were riled to see this part of the inquiry then given maximum press exposure by The Shift, saying the published allegations that they had “partied, drank alcohol and had sex in front of disabled students” were totally false and untrue, not even featuring as accusations in the Pathway inquiry.

Indeed, a request to MCAST principal James Calleja to defend the reputation of the teachers went ignored.

It was only former MCAST rector Stephen Cachia who, in comments to the press, said that no allegation of sexual abuse was ever made in the Pathway inquiry. Cachia in fact said the alleged behaviour had not occurred in the presence of students, and that he had serious reservations over the way the report was investigated “since (he) felt that a serious injustice was being made towards the lecturers concerned.”

Cachia in fact pointed his finger at former HR head Josephine Abdilla of having “implemented a strategy of manipulation and deceit” to have the false allegations investigated in the first place and said that he had been left in the dark about Galea Pirotta’s claims.

Serious allegations disproven

Now the teachers affected by the Pathway inquiry are accusing MCAST’s board of governors – specifically two members who formed part of the Pathway inquiry – of carrying out an unfair due process.

They say a third member of the inquiry board, was the parent of one of the Pathway students, being personally invested against the programme itself. And yet, the Pathway board did not even inform the teachers of the real allegations that had sparked the inquiry, making them believe they were answering the inquiry over the outcomes of the Pathway programme.

“A superficial analysis of the Pathway inquiry report shows this was not a fact-finding exercise but simply an act of condemnation. The board worked to confirm a prejudiced outcome, having not had the decency to inform the accused of the real allegations made against them,” the teachers say in their judicial protest.

Additionally, the Pathway inquiry ended up ignoring the teachers’ testimonies, even discarding the original Galea Pirotta accusations. “What was actually told to the Pathway inquiry was that one night, a certain J.D., who was sharing a room with a plaintiff, woke up at night in the dark to see the plaintiff closing the door, and saw ‘half of her body’ undressed... Galea Pirotta alleged that the plaintiff had been fully naked,” the teachers said in their judicial protest. “The inquiry still proceeded to conclude that there had been ‘one indecent act of nudism in the vicinity of students’, which conclusion was not even contrasted with the testimony of the plaintiff, nor even made evident from the testimony of J.D. themselves.”

The same was said of other allegations of alcohol consumption, in which witness C.M. claimed the teachers did not look “sharpish”, after a bottle of wine was produced by one of them. The board instead used the word “tipsy” to find for the allegation.

Other disproven allegations included claims of petty theft, when the teachers had been using Chaplaincy donations for personal care items; a claim that crucifixes were being removed from classrooms; apart from the board’s homophobia when it asked two teachers whether they were “gay” or “married” or in a same-sex relationship.

“We were labelled by the board of inquiry as forming part of a clique of bullies and being of ‘an outspoken nature’, as if the latter was something deplorable... we were never even shown a copy of this inquiry and it was ultimately leaked to the media,” the teachers said.

The teachers accused the inquiry of taking on board the accusations reported by Abdilla lock, stock and barrel in such a manner as to clamp down on the Pathway’s live ins, having been enabled by the animosity of other LSAs and the teachers’ union shop steward against the Pathway programme.

The teachers said they want the court to decree that the 2017 Pathway Inquiry Report be either cancelled or revoked or corrected and annotated by the facts identified in the 2019 Bonello inquiry.

They also want all charge letters and written warnings in their employment files to be revoked, given that there issued in breach of their collective agreement.

The plaintiffs are demanding a public apology for the injustice they suffered, as well as the for the necessary steps to be taken against Josephine Abdilla and Denise Galea Pirotta, and the inquiry board members who are also still members of the MCAST board of governors.

Josephine Abdilla case

Earlier this year, a court dismissed a libel case filed against MaltaToday by Josephine Abdilla. MaltaToday had first reported in August 2021 that Abdilla’s allegations of corruption had been disproved by a ministerial inquiry. That inquiry had been launched in 2018 after Abdilla was placed on forced leave following complaints by her co-workers.

The inquiry dismissed all of her allegations and noted that whistleblowers had come forward saying they had been pressured by Abdilla in selecting favoured candidates for MCAST teaching jobs.

As confirmed in court, Abdilla had lied under oath in her testimony before the Bonello inquiry, which revealed that she had created an atmosphere of unpleasantness and tension amongst staff and teachers through oppressive behaviour and bullying tactics; and that her claims of corruption and blackmail had been discredited by the inquiry.

The magistrate also described as “worrying” the fact that no action appeared to have been taken against Abdilla by the authorities, in spite of a conclusion by its own board which found that she had acted irregularly and possibly illegally.

Witness evidence also conclusively proved that Abdilla had tried to exert pressure on the members of a board interviewing candidates for the post of English teacher, in a way that favoured an unworthy candidate. Abdilla was also reported as having intervened in an irregular manner in the recruitment process, while trying to influence the board to illegally discriminate against candidates and award “false and fabricated marks to the candidates she indicated.”

Evidence tendered by several witnesses described aggression, bullying, shouting and humiliation at the hands of Abdilla.