Industrial action at Dundalk IT imminent following massive backing from staff

Industrial action is on the cards at Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT), after Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) staff at the Dublin Road campus backed it by an “unprecedented” majority of 99.1% in a ballot that took place last week.

The dispute revolves around what TUI members at DkIT describe as “the failure of DkIT’s President’s Office and Institute Administration to adhere to national collective agreements, respect industrial relations mechanisms and engage in transparent and meaningful consultation on a range of issues.”

Chairperson of the DkIT branch of the TUI, Mr Kenneth Sloane, said that “frustration has been building for months regarding the Institute’s strategic future.”

Mr Sloane added: “DkIT is now effectively the only Institute of Technology not moving towards University status.”

“While staff overwhelmingly support an immediate move toward Technological University status,” the TUI Chairperson continued, “staff representatives claim the DkIT President’s Office has gone to extraordinary lengths to prevent discussion of the Technological University topic in Academic forums.”

Mr Sloane goes on to say however, that it was "the emergence of a new plan to establish a fifth school within DkIT that prompted the recent ballot.”

“The fifth school plan, developed by Senior Administrators without consultation with staff, intends to dispense with academic Quality Assurance practices and oversight, and introduce what the TUI describe as a high cost / low quality model of education provision, which is totally at odds with the traditional mission of the IoT sector to provide high quality and affordable education accessible to all.”

“Unfortunately under the current president of DkIT”, Mr Sloan continues, “staff have experienced an increasingly autocratic and dysfunctional administrative approach which has attempted to suppress open discussion and replace our traditional collaborative way of doing business with a culture of ill-conceived unilateral dictates, of which this fifth school plan is just one instance, and which is in breach of both national and local agreements.

“As management have not withdrawn this plan and are in fact planning to proceed with it, our members had no option but to ballot for industrial action.”

In an update yesterday (Monday), Mr Sloane told the Democrat that TUI members at DkIT have “served notice that we won't be cooperating with any initiative that would have the effect of breaching national agreements, so that means non cooperation with the fifth school plan, as it envisages measures that would breach agreements.”

According to Mr Sloane, “management are intending to progress that plan at a meeting in Castlebellingham on Wednesday week. TUI members will not be attending it as we are demanding that plan be withdrawn.”

The Democrat contacted DkIT for a response to the TUI ballot. In a statement DkIT President, Michael Mulvey, PhD said: “We note the recent ballot by the TUI and will continue to work with its members.

“At this time, the Institute is actively engaged in a strategic planning process which involves extensive consultation with staff representatives from across the Institute around the future direction of the Institute.

“Part of the strategic planning process includes the exploration of all of the viable designation options available to DkIT, of which Technological University (TU) designation is one.

“The purpose of this planning process is to ensure that the full implications of all designation options are comprehended and are appropriately considered for adoption or otherwise within an overall Institute Strategic Plan 2020 to 2022 which will be published early next year.”