- Discrimination
in Italian universities
- FOREIGN
LECTURERS – LETTORI
-
David Petrie
For
18 years Italian universities, bankrolled by
their paymaster the Italian state, have been
cavilling outside and inside courts,
flouting European single market rules which
prohibit discrimination based on
nationality.
Italy
operates a two-tier system of employment in
its universities where discrimination based
on nationality is the rule.
ALLSI
was legally founded on 30 September 1997 to
combat the abuse and unlawful discrimination
in over 20 Italian universities.
ALLSI is now
the largest trade union and pressure
group representing and advising migrant
teachers in Italy and in other EU member
states.
“The
authorities are trying to “disappear”
us. On 13 March 1987 a local court judged
the quality and quantity of my work to be
equivalent to a category of associate
professor. This judgement was upheld by the
Italian Supreme Court of Cassation. Since then my name has been cancelled from the internal phone book
and the faculty vademecum. I was kicked off
the examining boards and barred from
following student dissertations. On 2
October 1996, I was fired along with 13
other foreign lecturers for 'insubordination'. We were all
reinstated 3 years later by the Supreme
Court. Since 1987 I have seen my Italian
associate professors' salaries double through
the automatic payment of increments for
years of service, while myself and other
non-Italian colleagues are still awaiting parity through the courts”.
David
Petrie is the chairman of ALLSI. He teaches
at the University of Verona, which was the
subject of the first of 3 European
Parliamentary resolutions on human rights.
See EU
Parliament Resolution B4-0968/95.
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