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SIPTU Academic Staff NUIG : Motion on The General Public Services Agreement (The ‘Croke park Proposals’)
Whereas the Government is trying to shift even more of the burden of the financial crisis on to the backs of working families through the public sector pay agreement with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, and in so doing will undermine educational standards and ensure further bail-outs for bankers and developers;
Whereas our members would be required, under threat of compulsory redundancy, to accept further pay-cuts and review of our contract, to meet impossible and inappropriate ‘productivity’ targets, to be re-deployed, to undertake even longer working hours, to further increase already heavy staff workloads with resulting inability to properly do our jobs while adding risks to health and family life;
Whereas students will, as a result of this agreement, face cuts to services, higher class sizes, lower standards of teaching, greater stress, less support and other resources in all aspects of their academic careers, all of which will undermine the quality of, and likelihood of getting, their degrees;
Whereas this agreement ignores the effects on many sectors of people facing this economic crisis: people who are unemployed and others on low incomes facing cuts to welfare, wages and public services; children and adults with disabilities, the sick and pensioners targeted by cuts to health care and care services; mothers trying to cope with cuts to child benefit and other devastating cutbacks which make it even harder to feed, clothe and care for children; homeless people facing cuts to support and crisis housing;
Whereas this agreement has been rejected by our colleagues on the executive of the Irish Federation of University Teachers, delegates of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland and the Association of Secondary School Teachers of Ireland along with a number of other union executives all of whom are trying to protect not only their own members but the education and other services they provide to all our communities;
Therefore; –
The members of the SIPTU academic section oppose the public sector pay and benefit cuts masquerading as a deal and instruct the section committee together with the branch secretary to make known our opposition by sending this resolution to our colleagues in other sections, other branches and the media.
University Agenda Revealed! “Colleges told: merge or die”, Indo 29th April
Colleges told: merge or die
Major shake-up ahead for third-level system, Irish Independent, Thursday 29th April
Tom Boland has signalled that huge changes are on the way
By John Walshe Education Editor
Thursday April 29 2010
IRELAND has too many universities and colleges that must now merge to survive, the head of the State’s third-level funding body has warned.
In a landmark address yesterday, Higher Education Authority (HEA) chief executive Tom Boland set out a reform agenda for the biggest ever shake-up of the country’s third-level system.
The proposals are certain to form a key component of a new national strategy currently being prepared for the Government.
The strategy will recommend merging colleges and courses, sources said last night.
The Irish Independent has also learned that the strategy group is also considering the provision of new employment contracts; ending a number of programmes and courses; and more effective monitoring of academic staff. (more)
INTO group’s leaflet- VOTE NO!
CPSU Activist Group makes their views clear- Vote No!
CPSU Activist Group Leaflet Below
Respect for the stakeholders in the higher education sector will be reciprocated, IFUT General Secretary tells Minister Coughlan
General Secretary of IFUT, Mike Jennings, speaks at Annual Delegate Conference,
A little respect for the stakeholders in the higher education sector and the avoidance of ’stunts’ and ‘cheap fixes’ will go a long way and will be reciprocated, the General Secretary of the Irish Federation of University Teachers, Mike Jennings, told newly-appointed Minister for Education, Mary Coughlan, at the 2010 IFUT Annual Delegate Conference today (Saturday, 24 April 2010).
“If there are issues in higher education that Minister Coughlan is concerned about and does not understand, she should come to us”, said the General Secretary. “Who is better able to speak knowledgeably about an issue such as Grade Inflation: the people who work in the system, or the CEOs of two multi-national companies?” (more on IFUT web page)
Europe’s most efficient system of university education is being ruined, IFUT President tells 2010 Annual Conference
“The Irish University system has always had to struggle and was never properly funded, even during the years of the Celtic Tiger, the President of the Irish Federation of University Teachers, Hugh Gibbons, said in his address to the 2010 IFUT Annual Delegate Conference today (Saturday, 24 April 2010). Now the Irish University system is being ruined by the Government embargo and moratorium on appointments, the blocks on promotion and cuts in institutions’ core grants.” (more…) From IFUT website..
Employment Control Framework Seriously Damages Careers of Female Lecturers and Researchers, IFUT ADC 24th April
The following two motions were passed at the Annual Delegate Congress of the Irish Federation of University Teachers, held yesterday
They deal with the “the serious damage being done predominantly to
the careers of female lecturing and research staff” by the application of the moratorium on staffing in the area of third level education.
In the Public Service Agreement, ICTU negotiators explicitly accepted the moratorium. No safeguards were inserted to protect those vulnerable to unequal treatment.
There are examples of such unequal treatment elsewhere in the public service
National Public Service Alliance would welcome details of such abuses
In addition Science Foundation Irealand (SFI) has cancelled the special allowance (eligible leave supplement) used to pay substitutes for professional research staff on maternity leave.
While 50% of SFI professional research Staff are women only 11% have reached the higher grade of Principal Investigator (PI).
(1)Damage to Careers of Female Lecturing & Research Staff
This ADC strongly rejects the continuing policy of non replacement of
staff on maternity leave, adoptive leave and sick leave as well as the retraction
of SFI’s eligible leave supplement for same. We call strongly for the
government to recognise the serious damage being done predominantly to
the careers of female lecturing and research staff.
(2) Substitute Cover for Maternity Leave
ADC demands that the substitute cover for maternity leave is made statutory for the Irish university sector thus allowing women participate on an equal basis as men within this sector.
Lenihan approved €1.5m deal for Boucher pension, Irish Times 24th April
Same Mr Lenihan approves 1.5 m for Boucher takes money from even lowest paid public servants as ICTU collaborates! http://bit.ly/c2smMS
Lenihan approved €1.5m deal for Boucher pension
COLM KEENA Public Affairs Correspondent
MINISTER FOR Finance Brian Lenihan approved the retirement deal for the Bank of Ireland chief executive Richie Boucher that led to his now-abandoned €1.5 million pension top-up.
The secretary general of the Department of Finance, Kevin Cardiff, confirmed yesterday to Labour TD Róisín Shortall that Mr Lenihan approved both Mr Boucher’s €623,000 salary and the provision that he could retire at age 55. more
ICTU must immediately withdraw from Public Service Agreement!
Psychiatric Nurses oppose conscription for “HSE army”
Meanwhile, at the Psychiatric Nurse Association (PNA) conference in Carlow yesterday, general secretary Des Kavanagh said the public sector should not be afraid of rejecting the public services pay and reform deal. He could find no good reason why public servants should accept the Croke Park agreement, he said.
“I am strongly of the view that for nurses to sign up for these proposals is akin to volunteering for conscription to a HSE army in which we surrender all of our rights and agree to obey our managers without protest, no matter how badly the service deteriorates,” he told the association’s annual conference in Carlow yesterday.
He criticised the proposed agreement, labelling it “absolutely blunt and indiscriminate”.
While he said that rejection of the deal would be “unprecedented” he added that, by accepting it, members would be endorsing “all of the worst cuts the HSE is trying to impose”.
He added that a requirement that unions would not take industrial action until 2014 was a “gagging clause” that sought to ensure obedience and compliance.
Right to Work Campaign Protest, Tues 11th May
Enough is Enough!
PROTEST AT BANKS BAIL OUT
March to the Dail
We Want Jobs and Public Services
Tuesday 11th May, Assemble 7.30 Garden of Remembrance, Parnell Square Dublin
Speakers:
• Fintan O’Toole (Journalist)
• John Kidd (SIPTU Firefighters)
• Janette Byrne (Patients Together)
• Walter Cullen (Unite trade union)
• John Bisset (Canal Communities Project)
• Professor Kathleen Lynch (UCD)
• Siobhan O ’Donoghue (Community Workers Co-op)
Organised by: Right to Work Campaign tel: 087-2604143 Email: righttowork@live.com
Sponsored by Unite trade union
WHY WE ARE MARCHING
• €33 billion of OUR money has already been put into the banks.
• This government is destroying our public services to pay for the bill.
• Instead of pouring vast sums into these banks, we should take them into public control and make the wealthy pay for their economic crimes.
• We need to change economic policy to help the half a million people who are unemployed.
• We should set up a public works programme to provide jobs and build up our public services.
• We should resist wage cuts. Wage cuts mean less spending in our economy – and more jobs losses.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
Don’t just sit at home and get angry. People power is the only way to bring real change. So come out on the streets and make your voice heard. This government needs to receive one big message:
GET OUT OF OFFICE!
GET INVOLVED:
The Right to Work Campaign brings together trade unionists, community activists and the unemployed to say: BAIL OUT JOBS AND SERVICES, NOT BANKS
We won’t let this government divide us between public sector and private sector workers, migrant and non-migrant. We want solidarity – not divide and rule tactics.
After the March to the Dail, we invite you to the Right to Work National Conference
Saturday May 22nd in the UNITE Hall 55-56 Middle Abbey Street, Dublin 1, starting at 12pm.
This is a conference of Resistance and Solidarity
and we want to hear your suggestions for how to step up our campaign.
If you want to know more about our conference or get involved with the Right to Work Campaign
• Text JOIN to 087 2604143
• E Mail: Righttowork@live.com
• Write to: Right to Work Campaign, 42 Woodavens, Clondalkin, Dublin 22
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