Updated | MUT warns that rival union's directives are illegal

The Malta Union of Teachers has warned that directives issued by other trade unions are illegal, referring to the Union of Professional Educators' directives which came into action today.

The UPE told teachers to not attend or carry out work on Individual Education Programmes and not to work on adaptations or carry out document observations in schools after it found that teachers and LSEs were not being paid adequately for their overtime and were being assigned transport duty.

"We would like to inform all our members that directives issues by other unions in the education sector are illegal. Nobody, including the MUT, will have a legal basis to assist whoever follows illegal directives and when the employer takes disciplinary action," the MUT warned on Friday.

The MUT quoted the relevant legislation, saying that once a union is recognised as the sole collective bargaining union, no other union may intervene on a collective matter.

Regarding the pending issues for teachers, the MUT said that it had already begun work on addressing them including the LSE II salary anomaly and the transport supervision duties. 

"Following the ultimatum issued by the MUT on Friday 11 October [regarding transport supervision], the Ministry changed the decision which had been taken and confirmed that onboard supervisors are to be paid a flat rate per trip," the MUT said in a statement on Friday.

It added that the MUT will be holding another scheduled meeting with the education ministry on Saturday morning to discuss the salaries of LSEs.

UPE—we are as much a union as MUT

The UPE released a retort to MUT's statement and said that its claims were unfounded allegations.

"The MUT should know that we are a registered union as much as MUT is. The fundamental right for a union to issue directives when it feels is necessary is a right bound to the sacrosant liberty of a person to choose his or her union," the UPE said in a statement.

It added that the MUT's warnings could be grounded in the fact that the MUT was displeased that many educators chose to trust UPE over MUT. 

"Instead of MUT making sure that workers' rights are not being impinged upon, we are seeing that this union prefers to hinder educators to get what is theirs by right. A serious union continues to put its members' rights at the forefront and should have no other agenda," UPE said, adding that its directives were legal.