Cancelled lectures likely as Tyndall staff bring pay dispute to UCC

Lecture cancellations and library closures could be possible next week as an industrial dispute at one of University College Cork’s and the country’s most prestigious research centres hits the main campus.

Staff of the Tyndall National Institute plan to picket the college gates next week after a second one-day work stoppage in a month yesterday. Many of them are paid 10%-20% less than people doing the same or similar work at UCC, but agreement cannot be reached with university management on how to resolve the row.

The picket line was run by members of Siptu for the second time in a month, joined by colleagues in the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT). They expect the support of their colleagues at the main campus when they extend their action next Wednesday.

“Based on expressions of support we have already received, we expect most IFUT members will display solidarity with their Tyndall colleagues and will not pass the picket,” IFUT general secretary Mike Jennings said.

IFUT has almost 50 members at Tyndall, and more than 350 academic, research, and library staff on the main UCC campus. Siptu has more than 70 members at the institute, with 800 at the main campus.

UCC management said it regrets the escalation of industrial action, given that there has been substantial progress on the issue, and that it will pose significant financial and reputational risk to an important regional and national asset.

It did not comment on the prospect of wider disruption to students next week.

The dispute continues despite progress at the Labour Relations Commission last month, where timescale, appeal mechanisms, and other aspects of a job-evaluation exercise were agreed. Agreement could not be reached on how and when any resulting arrangements would be implemented.

Don Lynch, who has worked in IT at Tyndall since 1999, said staff have taken all the cuts other public servants get, including the pension levy, yet an equivalent worker in UCC earns around €10,000 a year more than him.

“The longer this goes on, my comparator in UCC is getting increments, so for every year this goes on, I and my colleagues fall further behind. I love my job and I don’t see why the resolution to being treated unfairly and inequitably should be to look for work elsewhere,” he said.

UCC said the main difficulties are around implementing the outcome of the job evaluation due to the constraints of the current public service pay policy.

Tyndall Microneedles researcher Eoin Sheehan said all that staff are looking for is fairness and parity. He said there is nothing in the Haddington Road Agreement or financial emergency legislation to say inequity in the public service can be perpetuated.

Siptu organiser Bill Mulcahy said disrupting college activities would be regrettable but allowing pay inequality to continue would discourage students from seeking research careers at the high-tech Tyndall, which accounts for nearly a third of UCC’s research income.