News Industrial action against Clubclass

The Union of Professional Educators – Voice of the Workers persisted in its attempts to contact the owner at Clubclass English language school, who had refused to acknowledge his workers’ rights to representation by a union.

The owner of Clubclass continued ignoring all communication from all parties attempting to mediate on the issue and has refused to sit at a table to discuss the way forward in these uncertain times.

The wait has now come to a close and the union has acted upon its word to take industrial action.

As of Thursday morning teachers at Clubclass, who are members of the UPE, are refraining from any form of communication with school management or students as per the directive issued by the union, which reads as follows: “Teachers who are members of the UPE will not accept, or return, any digital/electronic/direct communication with the school management/students. Time sheets and attendance sheets are to be handed in as usual, but no further communication should be engaged in.”

This industrial action has not only received the backing of local organisations. In their recent communication with the union the ELT

Advocacy Group in Dublin, Ireland said: “Owners in Malta are showing their disdain for any notion of working teachers behaving like adults. Owners will of course ‘stand their ground’ as business owners… that generally means behaving like ‘their’ teachers are ‘their’ children. The owners of course paternalistically cast themselves the big tough daddy – having a fit. The teachers are not going to behave like children here. You can be very proud of your colleagues in Malta. Well done.”

A further demonstration of solidarity with the ELT teachers at Clubclass in Malta came from the TEFL Workers’ Union in the UK who said the following on one of their tweets: “The #TEFLWorkersUnion sends #solidarity to the staff at Clubclass in Malta who have begun industrial action to secure recognition of their union, the Union of Professional Educators. Good luck fellow workers, the UK language school staff have got your back.”

The UPE will remain in contact with all organisations, both locally and abroad, supporting this industrial action and will be publically issuing regular updates on any progress made.