September 7, 2015 at 11:20 am
MCAST lecturers dismissed in spite of assurance otherwise – MUT appeals with Minister to reverse decision
The MUT has made an appeal to the Minister for Education and Employment to look into highly debatable terminations at MCAST and reverse such decisions following assurances in the last months by top MCAST officials that such redundancies would not occur.
This appeal is being made after two lecturers, both American citizens and coincidentally both at the Institute of Art and Design, and who always received positive reports and had never had any negative feedback from their superiors, were suddenly terminated towards the end of their probationary period. In fact both lecturers have volumes of correspondence full of praise and positive feedback from their students and parents. These terminations are even more awkward given that it appears that MCAST needs both lecturers. In fact it seems apparent that vacancies were created after their dismissal and both lecturers are being replaced.
The Union concluded that these terminations are debatable for many reasons and on different levels and that while the MUT recognizes the legal right of the employer to terminate a job while on probation, it cannot understand how both lecturers employed by MCAST last year were fired.
