Private schools’ teachers lose out on thousands over recognition dispute

A number of teachers are planning to file constitutional cases in a bid to recoup thousands of Euros they lost in salaries when they left a posting and moved to a new school prior to changes being introduced in 2013, MaltaToday has learned.

Teachers in Malta – as in other countries – benefit from yearly salary increases to reflect their experience and career progression.

But before a so-called bridging agreement came into force in 2013, teachers who moved from one government school to another were stripped of their career record and had to start their new post on the lowest salary scale established.

Teachers at primary, lower secondary and upper secondary level currently start their career with a basic statutory gross salary of €18,254, which – through length of service – can reach a maximum of €23,997. A European Commission Eurydice study found that length of service for Maltese teachers to reach the highest base salary is 18 years.

As of 2013, teachers no longer lose their career records when they move from one government school posting to another, and therefore start their new assignments at their current level of seniority and salary cap.

In 2015, the Maltese Courts found in favour of a teacher who had filed a case to recover the money he claimed to have lost after moving from a government school to another in 2006. The court agreed the teacher should have had the 12 years experience recognised even after transferring to a new school and that the teacher should have been employed at the new post at the salary level including the accumulated annual increases. It awarded the claimant €22,000 in arrears.

MaltaToday is informed that a number of teachers in independent schools are now preparing to take the matter to court, after not having their prior experience recognised when they moved to their current posting.

Barbara*, a secondary school teacher at an independent school in central Malta, said that she moved to her new posting in 2014, after having already taught in government schools for nine years.

“I admit that I knew that my prior experience would not be recognised when I transferred, but the loss in salary, as well as the seniority, still hurts me to this day,” she said.

Stephen and Paula*, colleagues in a Church school in the south of Malta, agreed.

“By my calculations, I have lost over €30,000 in salary since moving to my current posting nine years ago,” said Stephen, who has been a teacher for more than 20 years.

The three teachers are among a number who are preparing to take their case to court, in the hope of recouping the wages lost after transferring to new schools.

But Marco Bonnici, president of the Malta Union of Teachers, said that the situation is not as dire as some may be thinking.

He acknowledged how the situation changed in 2013, after the bridging agreement was implemented.

“After that agreement was reached, teachers who transferred to a new posting had their experience recognised and therefore retained their wage level when they moved to a new school,” he said.

Bonnici said that many teachers who had transferred prior to 2013 had complained at having had to start at the minimum wage level in their new posting.

The MUT had taken the matter to heart and included the issue in its negotiations with the government for a new collective agreement.

“In fact, under the new collective agreement signed in December, the government agreed to recognise the experience of teachers who changed their posting even prior to 2013 and the teachers’ wage levels were revised to reflect to accumulated career experience,” Bonnici said.

He said the union, and the government, had been working to reach a mobility agreement with Church and independent schools, to ensure teachers did not lose any wages or benefits when they transferred from a public school to an independent or church institution, or vice versa.

“I am pleased to say that an agreement has just been reached with the Church schools on a mobility agreement that will ensure teachers are not stripped of their experience when they move to a new posting,” he said.

“The last hold-outs are independent schools, but we are working hard to bring them on board as well.”

Until then, and in the absence of class actions in Malta, teachers at independent schools are, in the meantime, left with no recourse but to seek individual court redress in a bid to recover thousands of Euros in lost wages.

And if the chatter on a particular Facebook group is anything to go by, these teachers will not be standing down anytime soon.