Coláiste Chiarán teachers to vote in principal dispute

Teachers at a Limerick school will vote today on whether to take industrial action in protest at issues related to the management approach of its high-profile principal.

The principal of Coláiste Chiaráin in Croom, Noel Malone, came to national prominence last year when he took the decision to suspend 28 pupils for appearing to endorse abusive comments about a teacher on a Facebook page.

Mr Malone won public support for his actions, which saw the pupils sent home for two days.

At the time he also sought an appearance before the Oireachtas committee on communications to brief politicians on the issues of bullying, social media and the reaction of Facebook.

However, behind the scenes there had been separate, ongoing staff disputes within the school.

Two Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) members took cases against Coláiste Chiaráin through the internal dispute procedure arising from allegations of bullying and harassment against Mr Malone.

These ultimately went to the Labour Relations Commission, where they were understood to have been unsuccessful. Other problems remained unresolved and on Tuesday night the County Limerick branch of the TUI held an EGM in Adare to discuss its members’ relationship with Mr Malone and Coláiste Chiaráin.

The EGM decided to hold a ballot at the school, which will take place today. The school closed because of storm damage yesterday, and if it is unable to open today the vote will take place off site. If accepted by the majority of TUI members it will allow industrial action up to and including strike.

The result will be submitted to a scheduled meeting of the union’s national executive tomorrow. The branch said it would not comment on the ballot until after that meeting. TUI headquarters also declined to discuss the case. “It would be inappropriate for the union to comment on any matter that is still in process and that has not yet come before its executive committee.”

In 2012, the cases of the two TUI teachers progressed through the standard internal procedures for dealing with bullying and harassment allegations. These procedures are agreed between the TUI and Irish Vocational Education Association, which represents Educational Training Boards.

They involved a two-stage informal process with the TUI and management and a three-stage formal process within the ETB before the Labour Relations Commission became involved.

These are understood to have cleared Mr Malone.

Mr Malone was contacted but did not comment yesterday. Limerick ETB did not comment.