Irish Federation of University Teachers » St Catherine’s

“Minister’s action caused 15 months of needless hardship to fixed-term staff”

admin — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:17:41 +0000

In an important ruling, the Labour Court has determined that two Fixed-Term Contract Lecturers, who lost their jobs when the Department of Education closed St Catherine’s College of Education for Home Economics, must be paid the same ex-gratia redundancy as their permanent colleagues.

The Labour Court also awarded additional compensation of €2500 each to the two women.

IFUT, which fought the case on behalf of their members, has warmly welcomed the ruling.

“One notable aspect of this case”, said Mike Jennings, General Secretary, “is that I personally made direct pleas to the then Minister, Mary Hanafin, not to embark on this illegal discrimination. Regrettably, the Minister each time rebuffed our representations”.

The Labour Court has formally noted that the Barrister who represented the Department of Education at the Labour Court Hearing “rightly conceded that the stated position of the Minister is unsustainable in law”.

The IFUT press release is available in full here.

The full text of the Labour Court Determination is available here.

Labour Court awards compensation to redeployed IFUT Members

admin — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:52:00 +0000

The Labour Court has recommended that the Department of Education should pay compensation of €3000 each to five IFUT members who were redeployed to various higher education institutions when the College closed in August 2007.

The award follows complaints by IFUT that the Department mishandled the closure very badly. IFUT sought compensation for losses of earnings suffered by their members and for the additional relocation costs incurred by them. The Department had firmly rejected all claims.

IFUT believes that the Labour Court Recommendation is further vindication of its criticism of the Department’s handling of the closure of St Catherine’s.

The IFUT Press Release is available in full here.

Labour Court tells Department of Education to pay compensation to ex-employees of St Catherine’s College of Education

admin — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:50:42 +0000

The Labour Court has recommended that the Department of Education should pay €60,000.00 to four members of the Irish Federation of University Teachers who were given early retirement when St Catherine’s College of Education for Home Economics, Dublin closed in August 2007.

The Labour Court issued its decision having found that “there was a level of inadequacy” in the Department’s role in helping the claimants to find alternative positions when the college closed. Therefore the Court upheld IFUT’s claim that the decision to remove the claimants from the payroll was “unfair in the circumstances”.

This is the second time the Department’s handling of the closure of St Catherine’s has been successfully challenged by IFUT.

For more on this story, see our Press Release.