Irish Federation of University Teachers

The National Executive of the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) has voted to instruct all its branches to defer negotiations on implementation of productivity concessions under the Croke Park Agreement, pending resolution of a serious dispute in Trinity College Dublin over compulsory redundancies.
Two Lecturers in TCD with long service have been made redundant and [...]

IFUT is seeking an urgent meeting with the Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn, TD, to discuss plans by UCC to spend hundreds of thousands of euro of taxpayers’ funds on a High Court appeal against a binding [...]

Contract staff employed by Irish universities now seem certain to have their redundancy settlements trebled on foot of important legal advances secured by IFUT.
In one case, a Researcher in NUI Maynooth has been awarded four weeks pay per year of service (pys) on top of her statutory entitlement (two weeks pys) by the Labour Court, [...]

The seven Irish universities paid IBEC €874 083 between 2005 and 2008.
These contributions are in addition to the costs of substantial, well-staffed Human Resources Departments. In addition, it should be noted that the State, through the Labour Relations Commission and the Labour Court, provides a free service for the resolution of disputes between employers and [...]

The Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) has welcomed the government’s decision to consider access for retired workers to employment rights bodies.
Responding to a proposal by Labour Senator Brendan Ryan, Minister for Labour Affairs, Dara Calleary, said that he was “sympathetic” to retired people having “a facility whereby grievances arising from their former employment relationship [...]

The Government’s recruitment squeeze of academic staff at third level is likely to face a legal challenge from the group which represents university lecturers.
The seven university presidents have also been considering a court challenge against the new Employment Control Framework which some maintain runs counter to the 1997 Universities Act, guaranteeing their independence.
While university presidents [...]

IFUT has written to the European Commission to complain about a Labour Court decision affecting one of its members.
It is calling on the Commission to investigate Ireland’s non-compliance with the fixed term workers directive, and Fixed Term Workers Act, 2003, the statute examined by the Labour Court in the run-up to its decision.
The 2003 Act [...]

IFUT has warmly welcomed a Recommendation from the Labour Court that disciplinary warnings against a University Academic who had been punished for not following orders regarding his Research Plans should be quashed and expunged from his employment record.
The Labour Court also recommended (LCR 19466) that the university, Trinity College Dublin (TCD), should “proceed as swiftly [...]

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 [...]

In an important Recommendation, the Labour Court has supported IFUT’s contention that UCD was wrong not to promote one of its members to the post of Associate Professor.
The member in question had twice won his appeals against his non-selection for promotion. The Appeals Committee had explicitly said that “it was unreasonable to conclude that you [...]