Church school teachers to have separate agreement discussed in coming months

Church school teachers will have a separate agreement discussed in the coming months, even though the state schools agreement already covers the majority of their resources and financial aspects.

"This agreement with the government for state schools automatically covers the financial aspects of church schools due to the state concordat. While both the Church and the state are accounted for, a separate agreement specifically for church schools needs to be made. This will be thoroughly discussed in the coming months," MUT president Marco Bonnici said on TVM's Xtra.

Just last week, the government and the teachers' union finalised the sectoral agreement for educators. Initially agreed upon in May, the terms were renegotiated after union members expressed dissatisfaction. The revised agreement garnered 92% support from union members last week. The previous five-year agreement expired two years ago, and educators will receive back pay for the increases in their allowances.

However, the the union president explained that a very small percentage—about 5%—of this agreement is slightly different from the state agreement due to the operation of church schools. This means that the MUT and the government need to sit down together to discuss the way forward on the matter.

Similar to the state schools' agreement, the church school agreement expired in 2022. The agreement signed between the Secretariat for Catholic Education and the Malta Union of Teachers in 2018, included a better financial package for church school teachers, revised salary scales, allowances and work resources, better working conditions, structures, and work opportunities.

Asked about the situation in independent schools, Bonnici said the challenges here might be the hardest.

"We have agreements with nearly every independent school in the country, and some of these agreements have already expired and need to be revised. We anticipate challenges, especially in the financial aspects, and we know we'll have to work hard to reach new agreements with independent schools."

Bonnici said a decision was taken between the unions and the schools that these agreements will not be revised before there is a complete sectoral agreement, "because you cannot revise without having a government structure to build on."