ATU staff protest over Department of Education’s ‘breach of agreement’

Atlantic Technological University Donegal staff joined the nationwide protest by the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) in Letterkenny.

The protest concerns the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science’s (DFHERIS) non-adherence to a national agreement in regards to regional variations in pay or conditions within the sector.

“We are out in protest because other campuses are receiving more privileged contracts,” James Kearns, a marketing lecturer at ATU, told DonegalLive. “We are afraid this will feed down into the other regions where we will be secondary Technical Universities, the contracts have been changed and we are not benefitting from these changed contracts. It is not about bringing others down, but about ensuring we receive the same level.

In 2017, third-level TUI members voted in a national ballot to accept a collective agreement concerning the establishment of Technological Universities, which concerned the functioning of the third-level institutes. 

“In the national agreement, there were agreed contracts, pay scales and agreed terms and conditions,” Mr Kearns added. “What has been created now is new contracts, pay scales and terms and conditions which breach the 2017 agreement.”

In an event notification to promote the protest,  TUI has described the department's approach as “an attempt to have each TU free to operate separately, without regard or recourse to national negotiation. 

“This is a clear and wholly unacceptable breach of a collective agreement accepted in good faith by our members.

“The Union urges DFHERIS to engage meaningfully with us on these key issues. Should they continue to fail to do so, the Union already has a strong mandate for a campaign of industrial action, up to and including strike action, on this critical issue following a national ballot of members last month.” 

The protest aims to get all ATUs operating equally, with regard to equal pay across all campuses. 

“We were in a building momentum agreement with the government we have had two years of non-industrial action, so this is our opportunity to show what’s happening now,” Mr Kearns added. 

The agreement made was not followed and there was no consultation in the matter. All the ATUs were supposed to operate in conjunction, but they are operating separately.

“We do not want a condition where one of the eight TU’s are seen at a higher level which would create a tiered system,” Mr Kearns said. “We need to ensure we bring all of the economic benefits we can to this region for work, pay and students especially, that their degree must be just as good as any other.

“We hope that the Minister and the Department of Education take note and enter meaningful discussions with their executive and bring us up to the level that we expect, that ATU are now working together and the other TUs get the same comparative schemes.”