Institute staff to picket UCC as pay dispute escalates

Staff at the Tyndall National Institute in Cork are to mount pickets at University College Cork in an escalation of their campaign over a perceived pay inequity between themselves and their counterparts in the university.

Last month, the 70 Siptu members at the institute mounted a picket outside their workplace over what they described as a gap of 10%-20% between their pay and that of their colleagues in UCC.

That picket saw the Siptu members, who include researchers, engineers, administration, technical, and IT staff, supported in their action by a number of colleagues from the other union at the Tyndall, the Irish Federation of University Teachers.

Now the union has announced stoppages from 7am to 6pm on both February 19 and February 26. On the first of those dates, pickets will be mounted at the Tyndall National Institute only.

However, on February 26, the pickets will be on both the Tyndall and the UCC main campus. IFUT has also served notice of the same action by its almost 40 members at the Tyndall.

While the two unions have not balloted their more than 1,000 members in UCC for supportive action and so will not instruct them to take part in the pickets, it is possible those workers may decide individually not to cross the picket lines out of solidarity with their Tyndall colleagues.

UCC has said the terms of reference for an internal evaluation of the correct rates of pay for Tyndall employees, as suggested by the Labour Relations Commission, were completed last month.

However, it said talks had been adjourned after “overall agreement could not be reached by the parties on the union position regarding the timing and manner of implementation of any outcome of the job evaluation”.

“The university greatly values its staff and acknowledges that there should be no disparity of treatment between staff in Tyndall and staff within the university,” it said last month. “However, resolution of any such disparity must also be in accordance with and have regard to the current legislation governing public pay policy and the provisions of the Haddington Road Agreement.”