Labour Court Database __________________________________________________________________________________ File Number: CD90384 Case Number: LCR13001 Section / Act: S67 Parties: NATIONAL COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN (N.C.A.D.) - and - SERVICES INDUSTRIAL PROFESSIONAL TECHNICAL UNION |
Claim for the upgrading of the post of technical assistant to assistant lecturer.
Recommendation:
5. The Court has fully considered the submissions of the parties
both oral and written. The Court in all the existing
circumstances does not find grounds for concession of the Union's
claim.
The Court so recommends.
Division: MrMcGrath Mr Keogh Mr O'Murchu
Text of Document__________________________________________________________________
CD90384 RECOMMENDATION NO. LCR13001
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ACTS, 1946 TO 1976
SECTION 67
PARTIES: NATIONAL COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN (N.C.A.D.)
AND
SERVICES INDUSTRIAL PROFESSIONAL TECHNICAL UNION
SUBJECT:
1. Claim for the upgrading of the post of technical assistant to
assistant lecturer.
BACKGROUND:
2. The worker concerned joined the College in 1983 and is
employed as a technical assistant in the department of visual
communications (details of his job description were supplied to
the Court). He had previously been employed in a teaching post at
the College of Technology, Bolton St. In May, 1986 the Union
wrote to Management seeking to have the post of the worker
upgraded to assistant lecturer on the basis of his duties and
responsibilities. When the claim was lodged it was agreed between
the parties to await the outcome of a staff grading report then
being conducted by the I.P.A. for the College. As a result of the
findings of the report (which recommended a two grade structure
for the technical assistant grade i.e. Grade I - standard level
and Grade II - higher level) the post of the worker was graded as
technical assistant II. The report further recommended the
establishment of a staffing review committee to facilitate any
further claims for regrading. However it subsequently transpired
that regrading from one grade to another was possibly outside the
ambit of the committee. The Union then referred the claim to the
conciliation service of the Labour Court on the 1st February,
1990. A conciliation conference was held on the 18th June 1990,
but no agreement was reached. The dispute was referred to the
Labour Court on the 4th July, 1990. A Court hearing was held on
the 1st August, 1990.
UNION'S ARGUMENTS:
3. 1. Until 1985 it was the practice of the College to send
students to the School of Printing, College of Technology,
Bolton St. to do a course of study in the various aspects of
printing leading to a City and Guilds examination in "Design
for Print". This course in Bolton St. is no longer available
to students at N.C.A.D. and the teaching, both academic and in
terms of skills, is now provided at the College mainly through
the print studio workshop which includes the teaching input of
the worker concerned.
2. In reality the employee has worked at all times under his
own direction and supervision and his work has become that of
an assistant lecturer. The worker provides the full range of
expertise required to teach, both the skills and technical
understanding of the print medium and he performs both
functions without supervision or direction. He has provided
this teaching satisfactorily and is in a position to do so
because of his previous teaching experience. The teaching
which is provided consists of academic tutorials as well as
demonstrating skills and techniques.
3. The workers input includes many different complex
procedures of print which are taught in no other area of the
College. In other areas of printing in the College there is
one specialist staff member for each process of printing e.g.
printed textiles, silkscreen printing, lithostone, etching or
intaglio printing. All of these specialists are employed as
lecturers. It should be noted that in one of the above areas
a member of staff was employed as a technical assistant but
because he was deemed to be doing the work of an assistant
lecturer he was upgraded to that position in 1980.
4. The worker concerned teaches two processes of printing,
litho offset printing and relief printing, the most complex of
all the printing processes. Other specialists within the
College handle only one printing process. It is difficult to
understand why the worker is not graded as these staff
members. Since 1986 the first M.A. student to graduate from
N.C.A.D. did his masters in design for print and worked
extensively for one year of his two year course under the
direction and supervision of the worker concerned.
5. Degree proposals (details supplied to the Court) submitted
by students to the College since 1984, which list the worker
concerned as their tutor have, in fact, been accepted by the
College and passed by the Board of Faculty and Design. At no
time has anyone ever questioned the input of the worker. The
degree document for "Batchelor of Design with Honours in
Graphic Communications" states "Other changes in the syllabus
have occurred naturally over the past years; the release to
Bolton Street printing school and to the College of Commerce
have been discontinued and the subject matter of these
releases is now being taught in our own studio and workshop".
The Union would contend that it is the worker concerned who is
teaching in the printing studio/workshop.
3. 6. The job specification for the worker as outlined in the
I.P.A. report does not represent the reality of his work at
the College. The reality is that his job has become and is,
that of an assistant lecturer and that he performs and has
performed for some considerable time the function of an
assistant lecturer to the complete satisfaction of the
N.C.A.D. and to the betterment of the College and its
students.
COLLEGE'S ARGUMENTS:
4. 1. The worker is an extremely good and much valued technician
in the Department of Visual Communication. In that area he
has reported to the senior tutor of the Department but has
operated under his own direction with direct contact with the
students. He is physically located in a different department
to the Department of Visual Communication and has all the
available printing processes under his control. He does not
give formal lectures on behalf of the department's students
but he does give detailed instructions explaining how printing
presses and other equipment in his area are used and he
provides expertise to students with particular specialist
requirements in the printing area.
2. The I.P.A. survey (details supplied to the Court) found
that the content of technical jobs within the College varied
from one area to the next. The survey recognised these
different levels of input but differentiated two grades of
technical assistant, one for the standard level and one for
the higher level. This latter level was considered to be a
complex and more advanced level. The worker concerned merited
the upper grade of the two technical assistant grades.
3. The College is strongly of the view that the general terms
and conditions of employment which are outlined in both the
original contract and subsequently varied in the job
description by the I.P.A. survey are very much in line with
the Technical Assistant II grade. They are consistent, in so
much as it is possible to identify them, with other technical
assistant grades in the College at this level.
4. The job profile for an assistant lecturer is based very
strongly on lecturer contact hours with students and carries
the appropriate variation in working hours per week. It is
not necessarily technically orientated and is not necessarily
skilled. The worker concerned is considerably skilled in the
area in which he is working and any lecturing skills he has
have not been put to the test on a full-time lecturing basis,
nor is it the understanding of Management that he is seeking
such a role.
4. 5. The union has referred to a precedent case whereby a
technical assistant was up-graded to assistant lecturer. The
circumstances of this case were unique in that part of the
worker's contract required him "to provide students with
practical instruction in fabric printing processes", and it
was considered that this constituted a teaching commitment
within the terms of a particular course document for printed
textiles. The College sees no case for the arguments applying
in this instance as the main activities of the job profile of
the I.P.A. survey specifically referred to the purpose of the
job of the worker concerned being to provide services
appropriate to technical assistant in the designated workshop.
RECOMMENDATION:
5. The Court has fully considered the submissions of the parties
both oral and written. The Court in all the existing
circumstances does not find grounds for concession of the Union's
claim.
The Court so recommends.
~
Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
Tom McGrath
_________________________
5th September, 1990. Deputy Chairman
T.O'D./M.F.