DIT row may escalate to strike

Last week's protest outside DIT Bolton St by angry print students, supported by the GPMU (Graphical, Paper and Media Union), is the beginning of industrial action which could lead to a complete closedown of the DIT unless management agrees to give permanent jobs to eight temporary staff. Members of the TUI's DIT branch are voting today and tomorrow on strike action.

The print students - apprentices on block release from their employers - have missed two weeks of lectures due to a cancellation of classes to be given by two of the eight teachers, all of whom are unavailable for teaching this term. The print students are concerned that without classes they will fail to qualify for FAS certificates.

Under the terms of the PCW, more than 340 contract staff in the IT sector have been made permanent. The eight DIT lecturers - all members of the faculty of applied arts who have been on contract for periods of between six and 23 years - applied for permanent positions and attended interviews in May. Their applications were turned down and the union threatened industrial action.

The Labour Relations Commission recommended that the eight be re-interviewed in the second round of the PCW competition. Their applications were again rejected by the DIT interview board. The issue was referred back to the LRC, which advised that the lecturers be appointed to permanent posts by December 31st and undergo personal development programmes.

The TUI says it had "serious difficulty" with this recommendation, but following consultation with the individuals concerned, agreed to accept it. So the lecturers have been given the term off from teaching in order to complete the programme. "We have asked part-time lecturers to take their classes, but in some instances they appear unwilling to do so," Dr Brendan Goldsmith, the DIT's president, says.

The TUI claims that the DIT has failed to implement LRC recommendations concerning the lecturers. The union is concerned that the eight are now required to re-apply for their positions in an open competition. It is expected that members of the TUI's DIT branch will vote in favour of one-day strike action on September 30th, three days' strike action during the weeks of October 4th and 11th and an all-out strike starting October 18th.

"We have had similar processes throughout the institutes of technology and in the rest of the DIT," comments Joe Carolan, president of the TUI. "There's a problem in one faculty only - applied arts. How is it that the process can be successfully concluded elsewhere yet in one area there is a refusal to make them permanent?" Goldsmith, meanwhile, denies that the DIT is acting in contravention of the LRC's recommendations. The third interview is a requirement of the PCW, he says.

Education and Living understands that this issue has been referred to the Department of Education by the LRC. TUI plans to hold the ballot on industrial action are still in place as we go to press.