In the ballot, 67.68% of the membership voted ‘No’, while 32.32% voted in favour.

IFUT General Secretary, Mike Jennings, said the vote “reflects the strong determination of our members not to have their job contracts put forward for binding arbitration.

“IFUT will be casting its vote against the proposals at the Public Service Committee of ICTU and will be seeking to ensure that the status quo remains in place. We are determined not to have the Croke Park proposals imposed on our members by a majority of other unions”.

The IFUT Press Release is available here.

IFUT General Secretary, Mike Jennings warned that the HEA’s rôle should instead be to seek to expand education access at a time of increasing demand and to assist in plans for economic recovery.

“A less candid man would not have been so open about cutback threats at a time when academics are voting on the “Croke Park Proposals” which, if accepted, would give the Government a blank cheque to impose all of these things without any meaningful regard for the rights of staff. I am sure that all IFUT members will now understand more than ever the necessity to reject the ‘Croke Park Proposals’ ”, said Mr Jennings.

Mr Jennings warned that the HEA’s analysis was “more sensational than thorough”. “How can you possibly say that our education system lacks critical mass at a time when we have historically high numbers of students in the system? How can you possibly argue, just when the points race is beginning to start up again because of the imbalance between student places and demand, that now is the time to start shutting down courses and colleges? It would be much more consistent with the rôle of the HEA were it to lobby hard for more funds for our seriously underfunded higher education system, rather than attacking that system and asking it to shrink itself,” said Mr Jennings.

The IFUT Press Release is available in full here.

“In spite of underfunding, the Irish University system is a successful university system. The Heads of the Irish Universities regularly report that the Irish University system is about half the cost per student as an equivalent UK University”, the IFUT President said. Quoting a recent EU Report, he pointed out that Ireland is at the top of the ‘efficiency’ league table and stressed that:

• Irish graduates are the most highly employable in Europe;
• Irish universities have the highest graduation rate in Europe;
• Ireland has the highest percentage of graduates in Europe;
• Universities in Ireland, Finland and Sweden are given the highest ‘excellence’ rating by academics in other EU countries.

“The Universities are being ruined by the Government embargo and moratorium. Posts in Universities remain vacant as the Government refuses to allow their filling; as a result departments are struggling to maintain their courses.”

Hugh Gibbons concluded by stressing the breadth and variety of University research and the narrowness of the Department of Finance interest. “Universities carry out all kinds of research: research that is socially useful, that investigates the fundamental properties of nature, research into mathematics, into our history, languages, culture, education and even economics. The only research the Department of Finance is interested in, is research that would give rise to a commercial return and this mostly relates to Science and Engineering.”

The IFUT Press Release is available in full here. The President’s speech is available in full here.

“While recognising that there are some positives in the proposed agreement, the offer of a blank cheque for the renegotiation of staff contracts, with fundamental and far reaching implications for educational standards, is simply not acceptable,” IFUT General Secretary, Mike Jennings, stated.

The Executive of IFUT also decided that the conditions of employment of its members will not be subject to aggregated vote by other unions on the proposed agreement and reserved the right to make whatever decisions are necessary if members’ jobs and conditions are put in jeopardy.

The matter will be put to a full ballot of the union’s members following its Annual Delegate Conference on 24 April next.

The IFUT Press Release is available here.

The leadership of the unions is determined to reflect the anger of teachers at the budget cuts to salaries and changes to pensions through a sustained campaign of opposition.

The four unions said the unilateral imposition of a pay cut in the budget was completely incompatible with social partnership, which in the view of the four teacher unions is now over.

All of the unions categorically rejected out of hand any suggestion that talks on a transformation agenda could continue. The unions said Government had its chance to talk last week but spurned the opportunity. “Those talks are over,” said a spokesperson. “They will not be restarted.”

The joint Press Release is available in full here.

“Cut the pay of an already demoralised staff, cut staff numbers to the bone and cut the funds needed to replace creakingly inadequate infrastructure – that seems to be the Government’s only mantra.

“Not alone are wages being cut on reduced staff numbers at a time when ever-greater numbers of young people are seeking to better their employment opportunities through third-level education, the Government is ominously planning further cuts through what they term ‘non-pay efficiencies’”, Mr Jennings said.

The IFUT Press Release is available in full here.

The main points of the IFUT policy are:

• The Government’s Employment Policy for the Higher Education Sector is Illegal
• The Government’s Policy is Politically Stupid
• The Government’s Policy is Contradictory and Unworkable
• The Minister’s Policy Will Lead to Higher Drop-out Rates
• The Minister’s Policy is Anti-Democratic
• IFUT Will Oppose These Policies
• IFUT Seeks The Support of University Management in Resisting These Cuts

The IFUT Press Release is available here.

The IFUT policy document is available here.

There has been detailed media comment on the IFUT document. An article published in Industrial Relations News, Volume 32, 9 September 2009, is available here and an article in The Irish Times of 7 September 2009 is available here and here. See the separate News item on this isuue here.

“This report, and, in particular, the parts of it which relate to education, will come to be regarded as one of the most short-sighted documents in Irish education history. At a time when more and more people are turning to education as an intelligent, self-enhancing alternative to unemployment, how could any group of consultants recommend a total reduction of almost seven thousand jobs in education, two thousand of them in higher education alone?”

The IFUT Press Release is available is full here.

The Press Statement announcing the release of the report is available here.

The report itself is in two volumes, Volume I and Volume II.

Access to the report on the IFUT Website is restricted to IFUT members only.

“Rationalisation could be a good thing if it were genuinely aimed at bringing about improvements in the education system. However, any programme of rationalisation which is only a flag of convenience for cost cutting will generate only conflict and acrimony”, Mr Jennings said.

Any top-down rationalisation which is imposed by diktat and without agreement simply will not work. The Government should learn from the decentralisation farce and recognise that better, more intelligent, more workable outcomes are achieved when the people directly involved are fully and genuinely consulted and listened to.

Recently the Minister for Education set up a Review Body to draw up a Strategic Review of Higher Education. Ominously, this body does not have a single member who is a serving Lecturer in a university.

IFUT also reiterated its position that no compulsory redundancies in the higher education sector will be acceptable.

The IFUT Press Release is available in full here.