Ninth Level Ireland

“The Department of Public Expenditure has said it will consider ‘in due course’ whether thousands of teachers who are scheduled to go on strike next month will face financial penalties. About 19,000 members of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) are to stage a one-day stoppage on February 4th, which is likely to lead to the closure of hundreds of second-level schools …” (more)

[Martin Wall and Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 20 January]

“Thousands of teachers who are members of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) are to go on strike on Tuesday, February 4th. The one-day strike, just days before the general election, is over what the union described as the Government’s ‘ongoing failure to eliminate the injustice of pay discrimination’ …” (more)

[Martin Wall, Irish Times, 17 January]

“Industrial strife resumes. After a couple of years of industrial peace, the prospect of disruption looms. Two-tier pay rates introduced in 2011 put ‘newly qualified teachers’ on inferior rates of pay. A decade later, the issue still hasn’t been fully resolved …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 7 January]

“The Taoiseach has said he expects public sector pay to rise higher than the rate of inflation. Leo Varadkar said he anticipates pay increases in the public sector in 2020 but they must be linked to reform. The Government has adopted a series of ‘one-size-fits-all’ deals with public service unions covering pay, conditions and reforms across the entire public sector over the past decade …” (more)

[Irish Examiner, 29 December]

“Unique universities: now the only place where senior public officers can live abroad, have few checks on expenses and tax, and benefit personally from public funding of gene patents. The exploitation of tax funds for private personal gains by state sector employees, particularly at universities. UCC as example. The public is funding things like applications for human gene patents …” (more)

[Indymedia Ireland, 21 December]

“Irish third-level institutions are to be affected by strikes and other actions over pay and conditions in the coming months. This comes as lecturers and researchers in 60 universities across the UK and Northern Ireland began an eight day strike on Monday over pensions, pay and conditions …” (more)

[TheJournal.ie, 1 December]

“The possibility that no public service pay agreement will be in place to follow the current deal when it expires at the end of next year has been raised by Fórsa at a meeting of ICTU’s Public Service Committee, which represents most unions with members in the public sector. The union’s general secretary Kevin Callinan today (Thursday) said Fórsa and other unions needed to prepare for the possibility, while urging the Government to inject more urgency into addressing problems with the current Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA) …” (more)

[Fórsa, 28 November]

“UCD academics are paid some of the highest salaries in the country as well as having greater pay packages than their international counterparts. This may be due to UCD being recently ranked low in international research tables and if the university provides higher salaries to researchers and academics this positioning can be improved …” (more)

[Adam O’Sullivan, College Tribune, 24 November]

“Senior academics have little confidence in the governance and management capacity of their own higher education institutions, according to a new survey. It also finds many are sceptical over the Government’s ambition to provide the best education system in Europe over the next decade. The findings are contained in a survey of more than 340 senior staff in higher education institutions and agencies by the polling firm Prospectus …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 20 November]

“Teachers are to stage a one-day strike in February in a significant escalation of the long-running campaign to end the two-tier pay system in schools. The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) said its executive had decided to hold the stoppage as its efforts to bring the issue of pay discrimination to a conclusion had been ‘frustrated by Government inaction’ …” (more)

[Martin Wall, Irish Times, 18 November]

“Teachers are to stage a one-day strike in February in a significant escalation of the long-running campaign to end the two-tier pay system in schools. The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) said its executive had decided to hold the stoppage as its efforts to bring the issue of pay discrimination to a conclusion had been ‘frustrated by Government inaction’ …” (more)

[Martin Wall, Irish Times, 18 November]

“The bill for public sector pay and pensions is set to rise by more than €1bn to a new peak next year. Wages for State workers and payments to pensioners will hit a combined total of €23bn. The pay bill is expected to increase by just under 5%, or €925m, to €19.6bn. Pension costs will jump 5.2%, or €166m, to €3.3bn …” (more)

[Anne-Marie Walsh, Independent, 12 October]

“Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) members have voted overwhelmingly to renew their mandate for industrial action over two-tier pay rates. The ballot was passed by a margin of 92% to 8% to endorse the union’s mandate for industrial action, up to and including strike action, as part of its campaign for equal pay …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 10 October]

“The IUA welcomes the Budget provisions for higher education for known increases in student numbers in 2020 and pay provisions under national wage agreements. We understand this cautious approach to the Budget by the government in the context of the considerable uncertainty arising from Brexit. However, it must be recognised that the Budget does not address the growing gap in core funding of our third level system …” (more)

[IUA, 9 October]

“An Ulster University lecturer has criticised the institution’s ‘galling’ spending after it emerged 65 staff were paid at least £100,000 each year. Right-wing pressure group the TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) announced the finding after submitting Freedom of Information requests to 120 universities across the UK …” (more)

[Allan Preston, Belfast Telegraph, 3 October]

“Teachers at Dublin City University’s English language school have said an offer to increase their pay by 50 cents an hour is ‘humiliating’ and ‘insulting’. Teachers at the school are looking to increase their pay from €24.60 to €35 per hour, close to what they were paid before the recession …” (more)

[TheJournal.ie, 16 September]

“The Education Oversight Body was established as a result of the Public Services Pay Agreement to act as a ‘fast-track’ clearing house for disputes which arise regarding the specific education-related provisions of the Agreement …” (more)

[IFUT, 2 September]

“A teachers’ union is to ballot members next month to renew its mandate for industrial action as tensions rise over controversial two-tier pay scales. The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) has announced it will ballot its 18,000 members for a mandate for industrial action, up to and including strike action, as part of its campaign to end pay discrimination …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 28 August]

“A chara, – The creation of 75 women-only professorships is a textbook example of how members of the higher socio-economic classes who have connections and influence in political and media circles can bend the the Government into making irrational and fiscally irresponsible decisions to their advantage, with all parties assuming the taxpayer will foot the substantial bill …” (more)

[Dave Slater, Irish Times, 25 July]

“Jonathan O’Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the planned unwinding of FEMPI measures in line with the Public Service Stability Agreement for each of the years 2019 to 2023 disaggregated by wage bracket …” (more)

[Dáil written answers, 25 June]