Third-level teachers’ union votes for industrial action

Members of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland working in third-level education have voted for industrial action in a dispute over the establishment of technological universities, writes Emmet Malone for The Irish Times.

The union says the dispute been caused by the Department of Further and Higher Education’s failure to adhere to an agreement reached seven years ago, and that a ballot of its 4,600 members in the sector produced a huge majority in favour of taking action. The union has called on the department to engage with it on the issue and says its national executive will decide in the coming weeks on what form any action may take in the event that the issue is not resolved.

It says a 2017 agreement reached at a time when detail of the sector’s reorganisation was being worked out included a framework for the terms and conditions of those to be employed by the new universities across the country. Instead, it contends, the aim of the department has been “to have each TU [technological university] free to operate separately, without regard or recourse to national negotiation”.
Full report on The Irish Times site