THE Dublin Institute of Technology is the Dunnes Stores of Irish education, the TUI congress was told.
More than one third of all hours are taught by non permanent members of staff, said Dublin Colleges delegate Mr Eddie Conlon. "There are 129 eligible part time teachers and 300 whole time equivalent part timers, paid by the hour, equalling about 900 people," he said.
The Government had rightly lectured the likes of Dunnes Stores on the issue of casual staff, but what was the point in lecturing if publicly funded institutes ignored the law and treated their casual staff as workers without rights, he asked. "It is a disgrace that a Government with two parties claiming to represent workers allows this to happen.
Mr Conlon called on the Minister for Education and her colleagues at Employment and Enterprise to investigate the noncompliance of third level colleges with statutory obligations and ensure sanctions were taken against those responsible.
He was speaking on a motion condemning casualisation and calling for immediate industrial action. It asked for a substantial reduction in the level of part time teaching and a conversion of part time posts with substantial hours to permanent positions as well as the creation of a substantial number of permanent posts. The motion was carried.
Industrial action by TUI members will begin in the Dublin Institute of Technology on April 10th and will escalate to other colleges if a satisfactory outcome is not achieved.
A motion from Co Louth branch obliged the TUI executive to give priority to a proposal that the Department employ an adequate number of psychologists and counsellors to deal with the increasing number of students with learning and behavioural difficulties in second level schools.
A motion instructing the union's executive to pursue a claim for a scaled reduction in teaching hours, based on age (from 50 years), was also carried.