by Michael P. Gerace

David Petrie, who is a 50-year-old lecturer at the University of Verona and Chair of ALLSI (which, in English, is the Association of Foreign Language Lecturers in Italy), has been on a long crusade for the rights of foreign lecturers in Italy. Petrie has been lobbying the European Parliament over practices of the Italian State since 1992. Discrimination by the Italian State against foreign lecturers (known as lettori) employed in Italian Universities by offering them different contracts than Italian teaching staff was deemed illegal by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in 1989 and 1993. The Italian Government reacted to the 1993 ECJ ruling by sending a telex to rectors of universities throughout the country, ordering the suspension of all teaching activities of lettori. The telex led to a mass of litigation as hundreds of lettori hired lawyers.

Italy ultimately changed its law in 1995 to correspond with European Union (EU) law in response to the ECJ rulings, but it simultaneously changed the status of the lettori by downgrading the position to one of a nonteaching language technician. The cut in status also resulted in a cut in pay. The Italian State then offered the country's 1,500 lettori new contracts to work in the downgraded positions. Those lettori who demanded to keep their old status (and salaries) at the Universities of Verona, Naples, Salerno, and Bologna were summarily fired. Petrie was among those sacked at the University of Verona. He responded with a lawsuit against the Italian State that found its way into the ECJ, where Petrie recently won his case.

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