College to pay back staff who donated wages to keep jobs

STAFF of University College Cork who agreed to give a week’s wages back to help bosses keep jobs are to have the money repaid.

In an email to all staff last week, just hours before Finance Minister Brian Lenihan announced wage cuts of 5% to 15% for all public sector workers, UCC president Dr Michael Murphy said the money was being returned and he thanked those who had contributed.

He made the appeal to staff last April as UCC and all other third-level colleges were told to cut staffing levels by 3% this year and again in 2010. It is believed the numbers who volunteered to give up the money – equivalent to almost 2% of wages – was quite low among the college’s 2,800-plus staff.

“In light of the fact that the Department of Finance instructed public institutions to reduce staff levels by 3% in 2009 and that a similar target is likely to be set for 2010, it has become evident to me that the university is precluded from using the contributions of staff to save jobs,” he wrote last Wednesday.

“In my presentation to the university community in early summer, I set out that donated funds would be used for this purpose only – for none other. Accordingly, the university is returning contributions and reiterating its gratitude for the generosity of those who participated,” Dr Murphy wrote.

Department of Education figures show that staff numbers in universities fell by 3% or 346 to 11,310 in the first nine months of the year, and by almost 4% or 350 to 8,540 at institutes of technology.

However, another 3% cut in staffing levels will be required of them next year under an employment control framework issued by the Higher Education Authority in July. The higher education sector is to have its day-to-day spending budgets cut by 4% or €52 million to €1.27 billion in 2010.

Responding to the cut announced by Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe last week, the Irish Universities Association said it was to be expected in light of overall savings in public spending. But they described it as creating a substantial challenge for the seven universities.

Those difficulties could be worsened by the threat of industrial action by academic and other staff over the public service pay cuts to be proposed in legislation due before the Dáil this week.

The Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) is to ballot its 2,000 members at five of the seven universities next month for industrial action up to strikes in a repeat of last month’s one-day stoppage, for which the three other teacher unions already have a mandate for members. The IFUT executive will also consider measures which could include withdrawing from social partnership and instructing members not to co-operate with administrative work or to take part in any weekend or night work, or to refuse to communicate by email.