Notice To Robert Abela: Strikes Are Meant To Be Uncomfortable
Robert Abela’s warning that today’s teachers’ strike is unfair on students was a low blow.
Strikes are, by their very nature, meant to be disruptive and uncomfortable, a drastic form of action to force a government to realise how essential a service is. Of course, Abela knows this but it seems he’s now trying to turn the public against the Malta Union of Teachers to pressure them into a compromise.
Yesterday, he said the deal on offer is much stronger than the last collective agreement of five years ago but that’s a pretty low bar to set.
That collective agreement proved to be such a let-down that a group of educators formed a breakaway union, the UPE, because they didn’t feel they could trust the MUT to represent their interests.
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If the MUT feels it has more leverage now, it’s only because the Prime Minister gave it to them himself when he promised during his election campaign that they will be given a “significant” wage increase.
By “significant”, one would have expected an increase of around €500 a month. Instead, the only actual figures that have been quoted so far have come from the UPE, which claimed the government is offering a raise in the margin of 2-3%. If that’s true, the MUT had every right to call it “insulting”.
I don’t think salaries are the only reason the teaching industry is facing a worker shortage. It is harder than ever to get a teaching qualification, paperwork has increased significantly and there isn’t much workplace flexibility, a crucial factor in the modern job market.
Teachers can’t work from home, start the work day later or finish it earlier, and they can’t take a long weekend when they’re feeling stressed. Social media has opened them up to public criticism by parents, and some cases have displayed a shocking lack of respect by students.
And there is also the reality, often ignored during national discussions about foreign workers, that Malta’s EU membership coupled with rapid technological developments has made it much easier for Maltese people to move to and work in European countries.
The teaching competition isn’t only competing with other jobs in the local market but with other EU job markets too.
Simply hoping that Malta will keep producing enough people with a vocation for educating the local population is clearly not enough.
It is time for the government to take this issue seriously. Significantly increasing salaries won’t solve everything but it will be a step in the right direction and a sign that the teaching profession is being given the absolute priority it deserves.
Do teachers deserve a significant pay rise?
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