A Dundee University graduate who has been fighting against discrimination in Italian universities has been awarded 11,000 euros by a supreme court in Italy.
David Petrie has worked for nearly 30 years at the University of Verona, where he lectures in English language.
Mr Petrie, Robert Hill and David Newbold have been awarded 6000 euros in damages plus interest and 5000 euros legal costs for being refused from competing for promoted posts at the University of Verona.
In 1995 Dundee University graduate Mr Petrie, and Mr Hill and Mr Newbold, both Oxford University graduates, applied for a temporary promoted post teaching English language in the faculty where they worked.
The University of Verona excluded their applications and others in 1994, 1996, 1997 and 2000 from selection procedures on the grounds that the three British graduates did not have the prerequisite qualifications.
Following guidance from the European Court of Justice, a Venice Administrative Tribunal on April 12, 1999 held this to be a violation of Article 5 of the EU Treaty which prohibits discrimination based on nationality. However, the Venice Regional Tribunal rejected their claim for damages on the grounds that damage was unproven.
Italy’s supreme court for administrative matters has now overturned that decision in its judgment.
Mr Petrie, who chairs the Association of Foreign Lecturers in Italy, said last night, “Delighted as I am with this judgment it is always welcome to see a principle established it nevertheless raises a few questions.
“How come it takes 15 years to get any compensation? And can the damage be undone?Repeated violation”What kind of people are sitting on faculty boards in Italian universities, where repeated violation in open contempt of a binding judgment of the European Court of Justice is widespread?
“Our lawyers recently provided the European Commission with information showing that the universities of Cagliari, Cassino, Ferrara, Florence, Genova, Messina, Palermo, Perugia, Siena, Urbino and Udine continue to advertise posts in a way that would exclude non-Italian applicants with qualifications obtained in their home countries.
“So what does that tell you about the swaggering barons in Italian universities? Where does this leave the so-called Bologna Process? “It is a process systematically and institutionally thwarted in the country whose city bears its name.
“It’s a sham,” Mr Petrie added, “a convenient, cynical mask on the 30 years of illegal discrimination based on nationality.
“In the foreign lecturers’ ‘lettori’ cases the Italian republic is peerless among its European Union partners. It has been found to be illegitimately discriminating on the grounds of nationality a record seven times in the European Court of Justice.”
There are about 400 foreign lecturers in Italy, known as “lettori.” They don’t enjoy the same wages, pension plans and rewards for length of service, even though they have a heavier workload.
Italian university lecturers teach for two hours and 15 minutes per week, for 30 weeks of the year. Most of the teaching is done by the lettori, like Mr Petrie, who do about 12 hours a week in the classroom and six hours of office and tutorial work.
In 1997 Mr Petrie formed an independent trade union to campaign against the stance by the Italian state.
With the help of Professor John Young who taught at Milan State University and is originally from Auchterarder Mr Petrie took the case to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
Photo used under a Creative Commons licence courtesy of Flickr user Public Domain Photos.