The Malta Union of Teachers (MUT) has now directed Academic Staff at the Institute of Tourism not to submit any examination papers for the first semester examinations, to refrain from performing any extra hours, and to continue to abide by the "work to rule" as already instructed by the Union.

MUT had originally declared a dispute with ITS over what it termed an 'exaggerated delay in concluding the Revised Collective Agreement which expired on 31st December 2006' and now about the continued impasse on the finalization of the collective agreement for the academic staff at the Institute of Tourism Studies (ITS).

The Ministry of Education would like to put the record straight. The draft new collective agreement which has been negotiated between ITS and MUT consists of 36 articles. ITS management and MUT have reached agreement quite some time ago on ALL articles except for article 10a.

Article 10a has so far provided that full time academic staff is required "to devote an average of up to twenty two (22) hours per week of contact hours, which hours shall comprise tutorials, sick cover and invigilation during term time to students. Contact hours shall be distributed equitably among all lecturing staff depending on the subject/area taught".

Now MUT wants to reduce the number of contact hours by two hours per week from 24 to 22 contact hours per week. The Management is against such reduction of teaching hours in the strong believe that this goes against the interests of the students of the ITS. This is the subject matter of the ONLY impasse with regards to this agreement.

ITS had agreed to attend a conciliation session with the MUT which was chaired by the Director of Employment and Industrial Relations on the 19th December. The Ministry was kept informed about the developments of this meeting. It does not result that "MUT Officials and ITS agreed on all the points under discussion" as claimed by the MUT in its press statement. According to an email addressed to both ITS and MUT "Both sides agreed to consider the acceptability ?" of a proposed compromise, which in fact would have still reduced the present weekly contact hours from 24 to 22, with the possibility of having staff working an extra two hours to be paid extra at the normal hourly rate instead of at overtime rate.

It is not true that the Ministry rejected " the agreement reached between the two sides during the meeting held at the Director of Labour" as no agreement was actually reached. ITS, a government educational institution, agreed to attend a conciliation meeting hoping that better judgment would prevail and was prepared to consider the acceptability of the suggested compromise formula. The MUT knows that on such issues educational institutions are obliged to follow Ministry policy and guidelines and to consult before coming to any definite agreement. Doing otherwise, as the MUT unjustly expects, is contrary to the good governance of educational institutions.

Like all other employees in Malta, ITS academic staff are conditioned to a 40 hour week, of which under the current collective agreement they are bound to do 24 contact hours with students per week, using the rest of the weekly working time for preparation, corrections, etc. The Ministry believes that reducing teaching or contact time with students beyond what is already established in collective agreements is an important matter of principle. The Ministry can only consider negotiating such an issue if agreement can be reached on the justification of the Union's claim in the context of the interests of the students. Without such justification, how could students, parents and teachers agree to a reduction of teacher's contact hours with students?

The Ministry believes that there is absolutely no justification for the agreement not to be signed immediately.