Trinity lecturer claims ‘double’ teaching load left him with ‘severe burnout’

An academic at Trinity College Dublin has claimed he was assigned a double teaching workload last term as an act of penalisation for complaining about the “unfair” distribution of lecturing duties – leaving him with a “severe case of burnout”.

Dr Idriss Jebari, a lecturer in Near and Middle Eastern studies, also told the Workplace Relations Commission on Tuesday that his stress was heightened due to the impact of the conflict in Gaza on his work as the only lecturer in his discipline at the university whose teaching addressed contemporary affairs.

He said he had to engage in teaching with an “added level of care and censorship” because of the conflict and that there was “extra labour” given that he had to be “very careful about the wording”.

“A lot of the students are very respectful but there were two instances where there was a small clash in the classroom that left me feeling somewhat shaken,” Dr Jebari said.

The campus occupation in May by a group of students protesting the war had been close to his office and was “cause for more stress and anxiety”, Dr Jebari added.

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The assistant professor has brought statutory complaints taking issue with his working conditions – and alleging discrimination and penalisation – under the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994 and the Employment Equality Act 1998.

Dr Jebari, who represented himself as a lay litigant, claims he was penalised by being assigned a double teaching load in the spring term this year due to the fact he “raised the matter of unfair distribution of labour”.

There was no appearance by the college before the Workplace Relations Commission on Tuesday morning, when Dr Jebari gave evidence by videolink.

“Junior scholars have very little say,” Dr Jebari said in evidence, arguing that policies on the distribution of workload were not being applied “equally across the board” in his department, favouring “more senior faculty members” at the expense of academics in “more precarious working conditions”.

Dr Jebari told the hearing that he secured tenure in February this year, nearly four years after he started work as an assistant professor on a five-year, fixed-term contract in April 2020.

He said in order to make the cut, he had to demonstrate that he was “research-active” and making a contribution to his field and hoped to be able to present published work to in his application. However, he said when he first approached his head of department in September 2022 seeking to invoke his contractual entitlement to take a research sabbatical after completing three years’ service he was told there was “an order of passage” and that another colleague had priority.

His sabbatical was approved for the autumn of 2023, he said. However, he said that he had to engage in “many weeks of work” during his research leave preparing a report for a tenure assessment because college authorities would not defer it as he requested.

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Dr Jebari said that he had been handed a “double teaching load” upon his return from sabbatical.

“In total I carried out nearly 650 hours of teaching [workload] in one academic term… a normal academic term is two main classes and between five and eight hours teaching in other modules,” he said.

Dr Jebari told the tribunal he “collapsed” at a departmental meeting at the end of the term and was subsequently placed on medical leave for a “severe case of burnout”.

Adjudicator Davnet O’Driscoll is expected to issue her decision on the case in due course.