Centralised printing reduces flexibility for teachers – UPE

The flexibility in preparing learning material for students remains a major concern for state school educators, Union for Professional Educators (UPE) Graham Sansone told The Malta Independent.

Sansone said that the union’s directives to teachers are to be kept in place. This issue arose when earlier this year, the government decided to enforce a 1995 rule of the Office of the Prime Minister stating that the government printing press should be used for all printing jobs required by government departments.

The system was piloted at a school in Zejtun, and teachers had said back in May that they were being expected to order what copies they needed done from three days in advance.

In July the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT) had said that the Education Ministry wanted to extend a pilot project to all government schools – a move done without consultation and in spite of objections raised by educators at the time.

“The system that will be put in place will have an impact on the professional autonomy of the educators and will put everyone in a centralised printing mechanism.

“This will be a burden to educators, in particular those who adapt their work based on the abilities of students under their care,” MUT said

This system will also create logistical problems which could mean that printed material needed would not be ready in time for planned lessons, the MUT said.

The MUT had said that it is not accepting the situation and was ready to register an industrial dispute if the government persisted with its intentions.

The Nationalist Party also commented on the situation, having said that the decision was being done only to the benefit of a few, while the majority were being badly served.

The government’s decision would serve the Prime Minister’s “right hand”, the PN said, in a clear reference to OPM Chief of Staff Keith Schembri.

The issue still persists today, where just last week, the UPE doubled down on their position stating that the teacher’s ‘autonomy in the preparation of their work and their right to intellectual property ownership should not be threatened.

Contacted by this newsroom Sansone said that, “they should be provided with an adequate photocopying service at their workplace and need not be restricted in using this sole service or burdened with extra time restrictions with regard to the preparation or delivery of their paperwork.”

He said that, “educators‘ workload, the nature of their lesson delivery, and other administrative work that is done in schools, demand a certain amount of flexibility which the new system, as it is being implemented in the so-called ‘pilot project or trial period’ will not allow.”

Sansone said that they were assured by high MEDE Officials that the project was still on trial and would involve the same college, and involved printing of school administrative work.

Sansone insisted that the government is obliging educators in general to send their resources and documents to the government printing press, with a scheduled delivery time during the week.

“We do not agree with this situation because it reduces flexibility for the teachers. A teacher has to be flexible enough that if they see that the lesson is, in one way or another, changing – then they have to be flexible in that regard.”

Directives were issued by the union, explicitly telling teachers to keep on using their preferred choices or school-based photocopying services, as long as they do not lose control of their work.

Questions sent to the Ministry for Education in the past weeks on the this matter remained unanswered despite a number of reminders.

Therefore, UPE is in breach of article 5 of the Recognition of Trade Union Regulations 2016 when it issues directives of a collective nature as it has done.

Article 5 states very clearly that, “once a union is recognised as the sole collective bargaining union, no other union may intervene on a collective matter related to the employees concerned with the employer”.

The same clause also precludes the employer from discussing any collective issues with any other union except the recognised one.

In this sense, the Ministry for Education and Employment is committed to ensuring the best working conditions for its employees and will continue its continuous dialogue and communication with the recognised trade union in this sector as it has always done.

The ministry said that UPE should respect the law by immediately withdrawing the illegal directives it has issued to avoid misunderstandings and unnecessary issues for educators in schools.