Calls to save BIMM jobs

Southside TDs have shown support for striking staff members at BIMM Music Institute.

Staff members have taken strike action at the music institute and are pushing back against planned cuts at the institution.

Over 50 staff members are being laid off at the Dublin 8 facility, with some being offered new positions.

BIMM falls under the jurisdiction of TU Dublin in the context of the Irish education system, with students paying fees to TU Dublin.

However, the day-to-day financials are operated by a private company based in England which has set about on a restructuring plan, which involves job cuts.

Lecturers at BIMM have now been forced into taking strike action and have received the support of local TDs.

Local Social Democrats TD Jen Cummins has urged BIMM to “rethink” their plans, saying the situation is “unacceptable.”

 “This is a blatant attack on fair employment standards in higher education. BIMM lecturers have dedicated years to providing high-quality education to students, yet they are now being pushed into insecure and poorly protected freelance positions.”

 “No worker should be expected to accept precarious conditions while their employer benefits from their expertise and commitment,” she said.

 “BIMM has played a key role in fostering Ireland’s music industry, and its lecturers are central to that success. Undermining their job security and financial stability will not only impact staff but will also degrade the quality of education for students”

 The Dublin South Central TD noted  “this move is part of a worrying trend of insecure employment in the education sector. If we allow institutions to continue down this path, we risk turning teaching into a profession with no stability, no protections, and no future.”

The fallout from the austerity era in the United Kingdom has created a crisis in its higher education systems; the late 2010s and early 2020s were dominated by a series of strikes at UK’s higher education facilities and there are fears that Ireland may be heading down the same path.

In late January, it was announced that 400 jobs were being cut at Cardiff University and certain courses were being cut entirely from the institution.

A similar situation may take hold in Ireland, according to local People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett.

The Dún Laoghaire TD said that despite TIMM being a private company, roughly 500 of its students are graduates and students of TUD and that they should fall within the confines of the Irish education system.

TUD operates within the framework of the CAO, which itself falls under the remit of the Department of Education.

To that end, Boyd Barrett said that students who enrolled at BIMM should not be affected by corporate decisions made in the UK and should be able to complete their studies in the Irish education sphere and that staff members should be afforded more job security.

“The students apply through the CAO to TUD. The degrees are awarded by TUD. TUD has outsourced this degree course to BIMM but these 53 workers have been treated shamefully.”

“Many of them have been working there for a decade or more and they have been told to reapply for their own jobs.”

“There are still as many students and the work is still there but BIMM has decided to tell the workers to reapply for their own jobs and has proposed that most of them would become freelance, when they were previously employed and on conditions that are about 50% of what they were previously employed under.”

He said the treatment of BIMM workers is “disgraceful” as they are “delivering an important course in music.”

Previous graduates of the school, such as Fontaines DC and members of The Murder Capital, have voiced their support for their place of education.

A BIMM spokesperson told the Irish Independent “we are pleased to be making 46 offers to their lecturer community during its ongoing consultation process.”

“We are now looking forward to finalising this process in the coming weeks” and that the salaries offered to the 46 staff members are “competitive.”

“For students, this means more clarity on lecturers’ office hours, including summer availability, and certainty on access to support,” they said.

“Associate lecturers are to be paid €45 an hour in a role that has greater flexibility to work around existing industry commitments and reduced administrative burden, enabling them to focus solely on teaching.

Minister for Higher Education James Lawless said “I certainly am very sympathetic to their plight. I have been reading about the situation and I have been reading media reports about the proposed restructuring, as it is labelled, and the industrial dispute that has flowed from that.”

“I do not like what I have read and I am concerned about the situation and the impact on staff and students,” the Fianna Fáil TD said.

He said there the government is fairly limited as to what it can do in this situation owing to the private nature of BIMM.

“Neither I, nor any other Minister, have any statutory role or powers to exercise in this matter,” he said.

“I understand and take the point that has been made that TUD is engaged in collaborative provision with BIMM to deliver a small number of programmes. From what I have been told, the arrangement seems to include academic quality assurance and protection of learner arrangements.”

He noted that as BIMM is operating as a private provider in the Irish education sphere, it has responsibility for staffing, organisational structures and the working terms and conditions of staff, outside the remit of his Department.

“Issues pertaining to the governance of the terms and conditions of the staff employed do not fall within the remit of my Department. That notwithstanding, I am concerned anytime there is the suggestion of redundancies, be it at BIMM or at any other company or organisation in the state.”

“The reality is that there are very few, if any, levers available to me as Minister to intervene in any industrial relations dispute, particularly one that involves a private sector organisation.”

He welcomed that the Irish Federation of University Teachers have said they are willing to engage in negotiations with the private entities involved in the dispute, and that he hopes the issue is “brought to a head.”