A former lecturer in French at the Institute of Technology, Tallaght (ITT), who now works as a sorter with An Post, has accused the college of ending his career in education.
Mr Gerard Cullen, who worked at the college between 1996 and 1998, said he thought he had a future at ITT, but management had "conspired" to frustrate his employment rights.
Mr Cullen's case for unfair dismissal at the Employment Appeals Tribunal continued over five days, before and after Christmas, and Mr Cullen represented himself for most of the time.
Judgment was reserved by the tribunal yesterday.
The college has rejected his claim for compensation and full reinstatement, claiming Mr Cullen was engaged on a year-to-year basis and was not a permanent employee.
Counsel for the college, Mr Tom Mallon SC, said Mr Cullen was not given classes for the academic term 1998/99 because his one-year contract had expired.
Mr Cullen yesterday called Mr Paul O'Hara, an official with the Teachers Union of Ireland, which represents staff at the college. Mr O'Hara said he understood that non-permanent staff could not be guaranteed work, but this situation could not be brought about "artificially".
"It's all right once the college doesn't conspire to reduce the hours," Mr O'Hara said.
He said that in Mr Cullen's case the college had put some of his classes together and given others to fellow teachers, so that the college could then say there was no work for Mr Cullen.
He said some of the classes were doubled up and then split up again after Mr Cullen left. Mr Mallon said the college was "perfectly entitled" to give classes previously taught by part-timers to permanent staff.
Mr Cullen outlined to the tribunal his work history from 1980 to when he joined ITT. He said he had been at various schools and colleges, mainly on short-term contracts.
Mr Mallon said this showed Mr Cullen had not held down a "whole-time permanent job" since 1980.
Mr Cullen said the reason he had not been kept on at ITT was because "the college took hours off me in a systematic fashion". He said this was against the "implied right to work in the Constitution".
Mr Mallon said Mr Cullen had signed a "commencement form" when he began working at the outset of the academic terms 1997/97 and 1997/98.
He said this amounted to a written contract and would have made it clear to Mr Cullen that he was being retained on a yearly basis only.
Mr Cullen countered that the commencement form was not a written contract and contained no specific terms of employment. "The commencement form was simply something for the payroll system," he stated.