9 - 15 March 2000

FIS staff want collective agreement to apply to them as well

by David Kelleher

Members of staff at the Foundation of International Studies are hoping that the recently-signed collective agreement between the Union Haddiema Maghqudin and the University will also apply to them.

Around 20 staff at the FIS last week became members of the union, which now has sole recognition, and asked the union to see how they could also benefit from better salaries and conditions as stipulated in the collective agreement for non-academic staff at the University.

Contacted yesterday, UHM section secretary Joe Borg confirmed that employees at FIS had asked the union to see whether this was possible.

"Last week a number of FIS staff joined the union and at a meeting said they would like to have the same collective agreement," Mr Borg told The Malta Business Weekly.

The Foundation for International Studies is an autonomous body within the University structure. It receives a grant from the government but not from the university funds.

There are also a number of legal implications that have to be studied before the collective agreement can be applied to FIS employees. One has to see whether the statute also includes the FIS as members of the university.

Mr Borg said that the employees' letters of appointment were not issued by the University, even though it has jurisdiction.

"We are in the first phase of seeing what our options are at the moment. Discussions have not, as yet, begun, but we will be doing our utmost for the employees at the FIS," Mr Borg told The Malta Business Weekly.