College industrial dispute resolved ahead of CAO offers

AN industrial dispute at Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) left students unable to make phone or email inquiries about points requirements at the college over the past two days.

The row over commitments in relation to outsourcing of work and other issues under the Towards 2016 social partnership agreement was resolved yesterday afternoon.

About 115 members of the IMPACT trade union began industrial action on Thursday morning, following two weeks’ notice to management at the college.

The action meant administrative staff were not answering phones or emails and were not engaging with management in relation to new initiatives. Other unions also asked their members at CIT not to carry out any duties not being carried out by their colleagues involved in the dispute.

A CIT spokesperson said the timing of the dispute was unfortunate, given the stresses students might already have been experiencing as they awaited the finalisation of CAO college place offers, which will be notified to applicants on Monday.

“We sincerely apologise to anybody who was inconvenienced by this situation,” she said.

Following talks between representatives of the union and the college yesterday morning, proposals were agreed and accepted in a ballot of the staff concerned at about 4pm.

The volume of calls to CIT, and to other third-level colleges, is likely to increase significantly from next week when students inquire about courses on which they might have been offered a place.

“Both sides in the dispute were anxious that it would be resolved before CAO offers are sent out to applicants on Monday morning,” said IMPACT assistant general secretary Hilary Kelleher.

“The proposals which arose from the earlier meetings were satisfactory to our members, so the matter is now at an end,” she added.

As well as the college’s main campus in Bishopstown, its constituent facilities at the National Maritime College in Ringaskiddy, Cork School of Music and the Crawford College of Art and Design were also affected by the dispute. The colleges have a combined student population of about 14,000 at all four campuses.

The €60 million CIT Cork School of Music will accept its first group of full-time third level and part-time second level students early next month, and will be officially opened by Education Minister Mary Hanafin on September 14.