Galway Bay fm newsroom – Postgraduate researchers at NUI Galway say they will refuse to carry out unpaid work from now on.
The Galway Postgraduate Workers Alliace has declared its intentions, not to carry-out teaching duties, in an open letter to the University’s President Prof Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, the Dean of Graduate Studies Prof Donal Leech and the Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris.
The Galway PGWA says asking postgraduates to carry out teaching duties is exploitative during ‘normal’ times, and this unfairness is even more palpable given postgraduates are now expected to carry out these duties on the front lines of a global pandemic.
The group argues that teaching students could breach a declaration that postgraduate researchers signed with the Revenue Commission, which states that there will be no element of service between the sponsor and the researchers.
The postgraduate alliance says the university is also in breach of the European Researchers Charter, which includes the line: "employers and/or funders should ensure that teaching duties are adequately remunerated."
It comes as NUIG will welcome all students and teaching staff back to the campus on Monday - with a blended model of in-person and online classes being employed.
