News | Sunday, 11 January 2009

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Agreement in sight for University academics

Charlot Zahra
After three days of intensive discussions and a students’ protest, a draft collective agrreement for the University of Malta’s academic staff was finally sealed yesterday.
It is hoped that the approval of this agreement will put the end word on five years of tortuous negotiations between the goverment and the Univesity academics.
The draft agreement between the University of Malta, the University of Malta Academic Staff Association (UMASA) and the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT) was announced yesterday morning.
A goverment statement said that the agreement was reached following the mediation of Noel Vella, Director of the Department of Industrial and Employment Relations.
“After intensive discussions, the parties reached a draft agreement which will be presented for the approval of the academic staff,” the joint statement added.
MUT President John Bencini told MaltaToday that the day after the two Unions issued their directives, the MUT started working behind the scenes towards reaching a solution to the impasse.
“These negotiations have been going on for quite a long time, but they only reached their peak in the last three days, with lengthy discussions lasting for three whole days.”
Bencini said the discussions were not easy. “However at the end, common sense reigned on everybody,” he said.
He said that this agreement was the continuation of the reform process at University, which was needed in view of the ever-increasing student numbers on Campus.
“With this agreement, the Goverrment has recognised the useful work that the lecturers are doing at University and the Junior College,” a satisfied Bencini told MaltaToday.
The MUT President expressed his hope that the collective agreement would be signed “in the next few days”.
Asked about the financial aspect of the agreement, which had been the main sticking point in the impasse, leading MUT and UMASA to issue the directives to academic staff not to correct the end-of-semester exams, Bencini told MaltaToday that this was “satifactory” to the two Unions.
However, as the UMASA Statute stipulates that the agreement has to be approved by its members before signing the deal, the Union will be convening an Extraordinary General Meeting tomorrow to seal the deal.
Sources told MaltaToday that the draft agreement stipulated that University lecturers would be getting a higher percentage of salary increase as the years pass by.
Bencini thanked Noel Vella, Director of the Department of Industrial and Employment Relations, for his sterling work during the three days of negotiations between the Goverment and the MUT.
He said that that Univeristy Rector Juanito Camilleri and his team had also given a substanial contribution during the discussions.
Bencini acknowledged that the students had been rightly preoccupied about the situation, however “you cannot take any industrial action without affecting people. It is impossible.
“Once the students came to discuss the dispute with me, and I told them: ‘Meet next door, and come up with directives that do not affect you directly, and we will implement them’.
“If you order a directive at the airport, you will affect the passengers,” Bencini explained by way of a comparison. “Howver those were the last resort,” he insisted.
Asked what had contributed to the final push after such a lengthy impasse, the MUT President said that there had been a collective effort that led to the unblocking of the situation.
“I can assure you that the students rally on its own did not lead to the final agreement, but the rally did contribute partially, as did the MUT pressure that was effective from day one of our directives.
“I am sure that that UMASA did the same thing, as well as the University rector, and other people, like Noel Vella.
Bencini also recognised that the pressures made by the public and the media had contributed as well to this achievement, as the situation had become “entangled”.
“I have been MUT President since 1996, and this was definitely the toughest negotiations that I have done in all these years of collective negotiations, Bencini told MaltaToday.
On its part, KSU President Roberta Avellino in a statement commended “the expedient manner in which negotiations have proceeded following last Wednesday’s rally.
“For the sake of the whole student body we augur that this collective agreement will be the initial step in securing excellence and quality education at the University of Malta,” she insisted.
The KSU augured that the academic staff would approve the agreement once the collective agreement is presented to them.
A spokesperson for the Ministry for Education and Culture told MaltaToday that until UMASA convenes its Extraordinary General Meeting tomorrow, Education Minister Dolores Cristina would not be giving any comments to the press about the matter.

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