Irish Federation of University Teachers

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 ruling governed by the Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act, 2003.

In a recent Determination, the Labour Court upheld a Rights Commissioner Decision that UCC should pay an IFUT member the amount of redundancy payment claimed by IFUT, statutory redundancy plus four weeks. UCC was represented in the Labour Court by one of the most expensive legal firms in Ireland at taxpayers’ expense. IFUT is now advised that, incredibly, UCC has retained this expensive law firm and have embarked upon a very costly appeal to the High Court, allegedly “on a point of law”.

IFUT General Secretary, Mike Jennings, says the Minister should intervene “to prevent the college squandering more than 20 times the payment due to a former employee on a spurious legal adventure which seems designed purely to defer the payment. This is not a case of IFUT seeking more money from government. Instead it is asking the Department of Education to step in to prevent a monumental waste of taxpayers’ money”.

The IFUT Media Release is available here.

Documentation on the case, including IFUT’s letter to the Minister, is available here.

Following intensive negotiations conducted over recent months with the Department of Education and Skills, members of the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) have voted decisively to accept the clarifications recommended to them by their Executive Committee.

“Our members were very wise not to accept the original proposal which was like being asked to buy a pig in a poke. But, by their vote today, they have indicated that the hard work put in by IFUT negotiators at national level has delivered a much less damaging and more tolerable set of proposals”, said Mike Jennings, IFUT General Secretary.

The results announced by IFUT today were as follows: 83.5% voted in favour and 16.5% voted against the clarified deal. There was a 42% turnout.

Mike Jennings said: “IFUT hopes that following this vote the focus will now shift to the massive productivity savings already given quite freely and generously by our members in recent years. The result is that we have a world-class system, which is providing higher education to more students than ever before in Ireland’s history, and it is being provided with drastically reduced resources, including significant pay cuts.”

The IFUT Media Release is available here.

The Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) has appointed Ms Joan Donegan as Assistant General Secretary. Ms Donegan was previously employed as a Branch Organiser (Industrial Relations Official) with SIPTU.

She is a qualified Mediator and has an MA from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth in Conflict Resolution Studies. In recent years she has also been actively involved in case work on behalf of Restorative Justice Services Ireland.

Ms Donegan will be based in IFUT’s Head Office, 11 Merrion Square, Dublin 2, where she will join the team of Mike Jennings, General Secretary, and Phyllis Russell, Office Manager. A photograph of Ms Donegan is available on the IFUT Website.

The IFUT Press Release is available here.

The Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairi Quinn, TD, has today (Wednesday, 25 May) launched a new initiative, Springboard, that will provide 6000 new places on Higher Education programmes for unemployed people. The initiative is targeted at those who were previously working but lost their jobs or were made redundant and who, with some upskilling, could fill current or future job shortages.

Minister Quinn stated, “We have a very talented workforce, but the loss of employment in traditional sectors such as construction, manufacturing and retail has meant that many of these qualified and experienced people are now out of work. At the same time, we know that there are skills shortages in certain areas. By providing focused up-skilling and retraining programmes, such as those offered through Springboard, we can match those vacancies with a newly re-skilled workforce and get people back to work.”

Potential students will apply online though Bluebrick.ie, which is the central clearing system for part time courses. Further information on programmes is also available on Bluebrick.ie.

The HEA Press Release is available here.

The death of Dr Garret FitzGerald will be mourned by his fellow members of the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT), the union of which he remained a full and committed member up to the time of his death.

Dr FitzGerald was the only Taoiseach in Ireland’s history who was concurrently a full member of a Congress-affiliated trade union. He was always proud of that fact as were, and are, all of his many friends in IFUT.

Dr FitzGerald was the Principal Guest Speaker at the IFUT Annual Delegate Conference in recent years. He also took an active part in the campaign in defence of the principle of academic freedom.

Speaking of Dr FitzGerald, the General Secretary of IFUT, Mike Jennings, said “The amazing thing about Garret was that, despite his monumental status as an Academic and Statesman, he was the easiest person in the world to talk to. Was there ever such a great man who was on first name terms with literally everyone he met? IFUT is proud to say that he was one of our own. He will be sadly missed”.

The Irish Federation of University Teachers extends its deepest sympathy to all of Dr FitzGerald’s family and his many friends.

The IFUT Media Release is available here.

Commenting on remarks by the Chairman of the Higher Education Authority (HEA), John Hennessy, that changes to HR management practices would help improve the status and functioning of Irish universities, Mike Jennings, General Secretary of the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT), said his remarks reveal the extent to which some persons in the HEA have lost touch with the realities of third-level education.

“Irish universities and academic staff have consistently delivered above-average outcomes for students, despite diminishing resources. Mr Hennessy now wishes to fix what isn’t broken by imposing new and potentially damaging HR changes on top of ongoing staffing and wage cuts, at a time when ever-more students are enrolling at third-level. He should preferably reacquaint himself with the facts on higher education in Ireland before issuing such cavalier and unhelpful comments in future”, Mr Jennings said.

The IFUT Media Release is available here.

Dr Marie Clarke, University College Dublin, has taken over as the new President of the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) following the organisation’s recent Annual Delegate Conference.

Dr Clarke is currently Head of the School of Education in UCD and has been a member of IFUT Executive for a number of years. Her biography and photograph are available on the IFUT Website.

The IFUT Media Release is available here.

The Minister for Education, Ruairí Quinn, TD, should move to protect the rights of thousands of researchers, librarians and other staff who are being placed on temporary contracts by universities, in violation of European Directives and related legislation here in Ireland, the General Secretary of the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT), Mike Jennings, states in an address to be delivered to IFUT’s Annual Conference in Dublin today (Saturday, 16 April).

Up to 4,000 young and gifted Researchers are being placed in constant insecurity and encouraged to think of their jobs as transitory and short-term, with little recognition, poor pay and no thanks or loyalty from their employers, Mr Jennings states.

“The new university policy, which stipulates that all new employment be on a fixed-term or fixed-purpose contract, is a direct challenge to Irish law and to the European Directive and Framework Agreement upon which that law is based.

“It is being introduced by universities, at the behest of the HEA, while these very same institutions call for greater commitment to research, ask our children to pursue careers in this area and issue high-minded but clearly hypocritical pronouncements about the need for a ‘smart economy’”, , Mr Jennings says.

The IFUT Media Release is available here.

Recent suggestions regarding the public service being ‘not fit for purpose’ do not apply to the universities and their academic staff; instead, levels of productivity are being increased amid income cuts of up to 25%, Dr Hugh Gibbons, President of the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT), states in an address to be delivered to the organisation’s Annual Conference in Dublin today (Saturday, 16 April).

“Over the last two years, university staff numbers have been cut by six percent. This figure does not include staff who retired early under the Incentivised Scheme for Early Retirement (ISER), who cannot be replaced. There is now a drastically reduced number of academic staff in the Universities, most departments are struggling to overcome the reduced level of staff and some departments are near closure.

“While it was traditionally the case that Irish Universities operated at half the cost per student of compared to the UK, over the last two years a combination of public service pay cuts, the pension levy other levies and the recent universal social charge, has resulted in pay cuts in the order of 25%.

“In addition, due to the ban on promotions, many international academics who came to Ireland have begun returning to their home country, depleting resources still further.

“These staffing and wage cuts are occurring at a time when ever-more students are enrolling at third-level. Yet the efficiency and quality of the Irish Higher Education sector is acknowledged by the EU in a recent ECOFIN report, which states that, considering their size, Finland, Ireland and Sweden are the countries with more universities pointed out by peers as being excellent”, Dr Gibbons said.

The IFUT Media Release is available here.

IFUT has received no ultimatum from the Department of Education threatening pay cuts unless the Croke Park Agreement is accepted.

Commenting on a report in The Irish Times on 4 March last, IFUT General Secretary, Mike Jennings, said there is no evidence whatever to support suggestions that the Department of Education has ‘lost patience’ with the Federation. “Rather, it has been IFUT that has expressed unease at the ’slow bicycle race’ nature of the process and it would appear that other vested interests have adopted an approach of ‘getting their retaliation in first’. In addition, IFUT wishes to clarify that it has not expressed criticism of NUIG proposals, as suggested in the article”, Mike Jennings said.

The IFUT Media Release is available here.