The RTC Act in 1992 gave excessive powers to directors of Institutes of Technology, the TUI's annual congress was told. Before that the institutes (formerly RTCs) had been part of the VEC system.
The Act gave the ITs autonomy and directors, already in place, were appointed for life.
"The Act is very vague in terms of the relationship between the governing bodies and the directors," Mr Pat Mitchell, the TUI representative for the western colleges, said. Clarification of the Act was needed as "you meet a blank wall" in industrial relations negotiations in some colleges, he said.
Mr Mitchell accused the IT directors of conspiring to prevent staff getting contracts by limiting them to seven-hour working weeks. "On the basis of the evidence from members", that limit "has been implemented in all colleges", he said.
Directors of ITs had too much power and the role of the governing bodies and the answerability of directors needed to be clarified," he said.
The Government had a couldn't-care-less attitude to low paid and part-time workers, Mr Peter MacMenamin, TUI deputy general secretary, said. It had failed to implement an EU directive prohibiting discrimination against part-time workers. The directive provided that part-time workers received the same pay as comparable full-time workers on a pro-rata basis.
Under the directive an IT lecturer working for eight hours a week and earning £6,000 a year would get an increase bringing him/her up to £12,000. Such lecturers would also be entitled to paid sick leave, paid maternity leave, incremental credit and everything else that went with a full-time job, Mr MacMenamin said.
Delegates voted unanimously to ballot 7,500 members in second-level schools on a one-day strike next month, over the suspension of appointments to promotional posts in vocational, community and comprehensive schools by the IVEA and the Association of Community and Comprehensive Schools.