UCC ‘wasting money’ by appealing court award

UNIVERSITY College Cork has been accused of planning a “monumental waste of taxpayers’ money” by appealing a Labour Court award of increased redundancy to a former employee.

Dr Naomi Bushin was made redundant in September 2009 at the end of a fixed-term contract as a researcher at UCC’s geography department.

The contract began in April 2006. She was only paid the statutory two weeks’ redundancy for each year of service and brought a case under law that entitles non-permanent employees to the same working conditions as their permanent counterparts.

She complained that she was treated less favourably than permanent employees paid additional redundancy after losing jobs in other higher education colleges.

A Labour Relations Commission rights commissioner decided she should be paid six weeks’ pay per year of service. That was appealed by UCC to the Labour Court, which heard the case in May.

The court directed a month ago that she was entitled to the same four weeks’ extra pay per year of service as those made redundant by other colleges, believed to amount to less than €20,000.

But the case has been listed for mention in the High Court in October after UCC appealed the Labour Court’s decision.

The Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) described the move as a spurious legal adventure, given rulings by the European Court in similar cases.

UCC declined to comment.

IFUT general secretary Mike Jennings is seeking a meeting with Education Minister Ruairi Quinn, saying he should intervene to prevent the college squandering 20 times the payment due to Ms Bushin.

“It is ludicrous that vast sums are being spent by some universities to attempt to delay making legitimate payments on the basis of seeking to overturn legally binding agreements,” he said.

A spokesperson for Mr Quinn said the universities have legal autonomy in how they manage industrial relations matters.