“In our Annual Report we refer to no less than 15 separate cases in the last year alone where IFUT has had to fight and fight again to defend rights given to us under the 2003 Act. Other cases are in the pipeline while yet others have since been resolved”, he said.

“Employers will extend such low standards of treatment to all if they get away with it in one area, and in some cases our employers have already targeted Lecturers and Librarians for compulsory redundancy and unequal treatment. Despite all the promises given to induce us to concede massive productivity under ‘Croke Park’, the reality is that job insecurity and the threat of redundancy stalks the Higher Education Sector today”, Mike Jennings said.

The IFUT Media Release is available here.

The agreement is geared to ensure more effective representation for researchers on pay and conditions and to protect the rights of individual researchers. IRSA will maintain its distinctive structure and character as a representative network for researchers.

Welcoming the development, Mike Jennings, General Secretary of IFUT, said that third-level education would be the real winner as a result of the process.

“By combining our expertise and experience I am confident that the interests of lecturers and students, research and researchers will all benefit from a more comprehensive and co-ordinated approach to the many issues that face us at this time”, he said.

The IFUT Media Release is available here. The IRSA Media Release is available here.

“John Hennessy’s entire motivation seems to be one of administrative and managerial convenience, rather than ensuring educational standards”, said Mr Jennings. “He proposes changes in so-called ‘restrictive practices’ without any evidence whatsoever to substantiate what are alarmingly ill-informed suppositions”.

The IFUT Media Release is available here.

Dr Clarke said that both senior and junior academic staff in Ireland spend too much time on administration, which is the result of an intensified audit culture.

“Senior academics spend 22% of their day on administration, almost as much as the 24% devoted to teaching. 19% of junior academics’ time is spent on administration, which is also excessive. This represents an imbalance in duties within the Irish university sector and is a poor use of staff time and qualifications”, she said.

The IFUT Media Release is available here.

Speaking at a Forum organised by the Irish Research Staff Association today on 30 March in the Mansion House, Dublin, IFUT General Secretary, Mike Jennings, said that that university institutions appear to regard their research staff as second-class citizens.

“There is, for instance, an unspoken but clearly systematic campaign by the Universities, fully backed by the Department of Education and Skills, to roll back protection and rights for research staff as stipulated in the 2003 Fixed-Term Workers Act.

“This was most clearly evident in the recent failed attempt by UCC to contest the rights of one of its researchers, which the college disgracefully pursued all the way to the High Court, ultimately at the taxpayers’ expense”, he said.

IFUT will shortly announce details of a Memorandum of Understanding and Co-operation with the Irish Research Staff Association.

In addition, the next meeting of the EU’s Sectoral Social Dialogue on Higher Education will discuss research-related issues as the first item on its Agenda, at the instigation of IFUT, Mr Jennings said.

The IFUT Media Release is available here.

In the High Court on 17 February, Mr Justice Kearns rejected an appeal by University College Cork (UCC) against an earlier Labour Court Determination, which had awarded six weeks’ pay per year of service to a lecturer who was made redundant when her fixed-term contract was not renewed by the University. In his ruling, the judge stated his satisfaction that the Labour Court “gave every aspect of this matter careful and comprehensive consideration”, and that the arguments by UCC were “precluded” under legislation.

Mr Justice Kearns also ruled that UCC’s position would “foster discrimination by encouraging employers to select fixed-term employees for redundancy ahead of permanent employees, thereby avoiding the creation of any form of precedent of enhanced redundancy payments against which fixed-term employees could measure their own payments”.

Mike Jennings, General Secretary of IFUT, said it was “a very important day for fixed-term workers, a huge number of whom are employed in universities”.

IFUT had previously written to the Minister for Education, Ruairí Quinn, objecting to UCC’s “wasting of public funds” in fighting the case all the way to the High Court.

“Our victory today re-inforces the validity of that position”, Mike Jennings said.

The IFUT Media Release is available here.

The Report, a high-level Review of Governance in Higher Education in Scotland, was commissioned by the Scottish Government and was published on 16 January last. The Group was chaired by Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski, former President of Dublin City University.

The core recommendation in the Report is based on work done by academics in Ireland on this topic. The relevant section of the report reads, “In implementing the Irish provision, Trinity College Dublin adopted a ‘Policy on Academic Freedom’ in December 2010, which was the result of an initiative of the College’s Academic Staff Association, IFUT, and which was developed in a Special Working Group established by the College”. The Report goes on to recommend that the TCD/IFUT Policy Statement should be treated by the Scottish Funding Council as a pre-condition for the award of university financial support, “or, in the case of the establishment of a new university, as a condition to be satisfied before university status is granted”.

IFUT General Secretary, Mike Jennings, said: “It should be a source of pride for all Irish citizens and, in particular those who care about the quality of our universities, that a provision in Irish legislation is being held up internationally as a model to be emulated.

“We in IFUT, the primary representative organisation of Irish academics, are enormously proud of our colleagues in our TCD Branch, who produced a document which is not only going to be applied in every university in Scotland, but is, we are aware, being discussed and praised in Higher Education Institutions right across the world”.

The IFUT Media Release is available here.

IFUT General Secretary, Mike Jennings, said that “any new proposals must be based on educational considerations, not administrative, bureaucratic convenience.

“We must be very careful to avoid any loss of diversity in Higher Education through forced merging of ’smaller colleges’ with other institutions,” he said.

The proposals are available on the HEA Website.

The IFUT Media Release is available here.

Two Lecturers in TCD with long service have been made redundant and a long serving member of the Library staff has also been issued with notice of dismissal.

Mike Jennings, General Secretary of IFUT, said that “last year, IFUT members, with considerable reluctance, voted to endorse the Croke Park Agreement following detailed clarifications from the Department of Education as to how its provisions would apply in the university sector.

“In return for agreeing to substantial extra productivity and input, we were guaranteed no job losses and no further pay cuts on top of the substantial reductions already suffered by staff. The authorities in TCD have, in spectacular fashion, broken this agreement. No party to an agreement could be expected to continue to honour it when the other party so blatantly welshes on their commitments.

“This dispute will, at IFUT’s request, now be investigated by the Labour Court in March. Until then, IFUT is putting its participation in Croke Park on hold”, Mike Jennings said.

The IFUT Media Release is available here.

IFUT General Secretary, Mike Jennings, said that the funding cuts are occurring at a time when the number of people seeking to attend Higher Education is the highest in the history of the state and will exacerbate the trend towards forced emigration of a generation of our young people.

“Higher Education must be developed to fulfil its potential as a contributor to our society and economy and not subject to automatic cuts in Budgetary considerations,” Mike Jennings said.

The IFUT Media Release is available here.