Teachers’ union declares trade dispute with MCAST

The Malta Union of Teachers will hold a protest on Tuesday after it delcared a new trade dispute with the vocational skills college MCAST.

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

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.

“In the last days there was a deterioration of negotiations from MCAST which led MUT to reconsider its position. To this effect and in view of the latest communication received from MCAST yesterday, which is a regression in negotiations, the MUT is hereby declaring a fresh trade dispute with MCAST,” MUT president Marco Bonnici said.

The protest will be held outside the MCAST administration block on Tuesday 1 October at 11am.

MCAST lecturers have expressed concern that their working conditions are still governed by a collective agreement which expired nearly three years ago.

MCAST lecturers had voiced concerns about the lack of transparency and feedback from the union representing them.

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

Last November, the MUT issued directives for MCAST lecturers but lifted them in January, claiming to have found a way forward. It again issued directives in May but felt secure enough to partially lift the directives in June.

The disruption caused by the directives has created a backlog of work which now needs to be addressed along with preparatory work for the new academic year.