Trinity’s Careers Service ran an advert for career opportunities with Aramark – the controversial company widely criticised for its links to direct provision centres – last month, due to a College “oversight”.
An advert for careers in Aramark appeared in a “various opportunities” post on the Careers Service website last month.
The listing described Aramark – which operated several eateries in Trinity in recent years, prompting sustained student protests – as “a leader in food, facilities, property management and energy services”.
The closing date to submit applications was May 31st, and the listing has since been removed from the Careers website.
Aramark ran Trinity’s Hamilton cafes until earlier this year, before terminating its contract with the College more than a year before its scheduled 2021 conclusion. A student-run campaign, Aramark Off Our Campus, had been leading boycotts of campus food outlets run by the company since 2017.
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The jobs listing for Aramark saw the company described as “a leader in food, facilities, property management and energy services”.
In an email statement to The University Times, media relations officer Catherine O’Mahony said that the listing “was included as part of a ‘Various Opportunities’ posting and included companies that were recruiting at graduate level at that time”.
Aramark’s inclusion was an oversight”, O’Mahony said. “The Careers Service has no commercial relationship with Aramark and no specific role was advertised.”
“We make every effort to monitor the organisations and opportunities listed on MyCareer”, she added.
Last week, Aramark was roundly condemned on social media after it expressed support for the Blackout Tuesday campaign, which aimed to show solidarity with anti-racism protests in the US.
Saoirse McHugh of the Green Party wrote in response: “A huge part of your business Is based on racism, you’re fooling nobody.”
The University Times reported in January that the Hamilton cafes had cut ties with Aramark. At the time, Moira O’Brien, the head of Trinity Catering, told this newspaper that its replacement would be “run and operated by Trinity catering staff who are employed directly by the college”.
O’Brien said Trinity recognises the “concern with the previous operator and wants it to be known it will be Trinity staff catered”.
At the time, in a statement to The University Times, Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union President Laura Beston said the union is “delighted to see that Aramark will be leaving Trinity campus”.
“A huge congratulations to the activists that started the group Aramark Off Our Campus, for all their tireless dedication to the cause”, she added.
