THOUSANDS OF researchers, librarians and other staff are being placed on temporary contracts by universities, in violation of Irish and EU legislation, the conference of university teachers was told at the weekend.
General secretary of the Irish Federation of University Teachers Mike Jennings demanded that Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn intervene to protest in favour of the rights of these workers.
Mr Jennings said that up to 4,000 researchers were “being placed in constant insecurity and encouraged to think of their jobs as transitory and short-term, with little recognition, poor pay and no thanks or loyalty from their employers.
“Eight years ago, the Oireachtas passed the Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act, the explicit intent of which was to tackle this type of cynical and exploitative practice.
“The new university policy, which stipulates that all new employment be on a fixed-term or fixed-purpose contract, is a direct challenge to Irish law and to the European directive and framework agreement upon which that law is based.”
Mr Jennings said the Minister for Education “must tackle this challenge to the law head-on, in the interests of fairness and to avoid industrial relations litigation and disputation in the years ahead”.
The abuses, he added, affected not just researchers but increasingly young librarians and lecturers as well.
The Minister should intervene on this issue without delay.
“Ireland will never become ‘open for business’ as the new Government intends, if the door is effectively closed on the very people who can lead the way in research and innovation in the vital years ahead,” Mr Jennings said.
