Staff to picket Tyndall in pay dispute

Siptu will mount pickets at the Tyndall National Institute in Cork this morning over what it describes as a disparity of up to 20% in pay between its members and staff at University College Cork.

Those involved include researchers, engineers, administrators, technical staff, and IT workers.

The union claims there is a pay difference “of the order of 10% to 20%” between a large number of Tyndall employees and their counterparts doing the same or similar work on the UCC main campus”.

In Mar 2012, the Labour Court said it could not recommend the staff’s claim because of the Croke Park agreement, but it also found there should be no disparity in pay between two parts of the university for work of equal value. The matter was referred to the Labour Relations Commission.

It said the parties should “enter talks on terms of reference for the purpose of commencing an internal evaluation exercise to establish the correct rate of pay for the employees of all grades within the Tyndall Institute”. It said in terms of implementation, the terms of reference would “have regard to the current contextual environment both legislative and provisions under the Haddington Road Agreement ”.

It said that once the job evaluation process was complete, the parties should enter talks under the commission’s auspices to examine how to progress the evaluation findings.

Last week there was a total of 18 hours of further discussions between the two sides at the LRC. Siptu organiser Bill Mulcahy said that while there is a degree of acceptance that the pay gap might not close until Haddington Road expires, the Department of Education will not discuss doing anything to stop the gap widening between UCC staff and Tyndall Institute workers thanks to the receipt of incremental pay increases by the former but not the latter.

Today’s action is likely to be followed by non-cooperation by staff with certain functions in the Tyndall at certain times in the following days. Further stoppages are also likely.

Mr Mulcahy said if the situation is not addressed, there is likely to be a ballot of the 800 union members in UCC for supportive industrial action.

“Not only is there a considerable pay gap with counterparts in UCC but that gap is going to widen as increments are paid to the other university staff. This dispute can be resolved if the departments of Education and Public Expenditure and Reform are willing to put forward concrete measures to address the widening pay gap,” said Siptu sector organiser Louise O’Reilly.

The Irish Federation of University Teachers is also involved in the dispute but will not be placing a picket due to procedural reasons. Siptu expects its members will, however, support its action.