UCD staff protest after pay rise withheld

A delegation representing 3,000 Siptu staff from University College Dublin protested outside the constituency office of the Minister for Education yesterday to highlight their objection to the withholding of a pay increase.

The delegation presented a letter of objection at Mary Hanafin's office in Dún Laoghaire.

Staff at UCD learned in January that a 3 per cent pay rise, due on December 1st under the "Towards 2016" pay agreement, would not be paid following a recommendation from the education sector performance verification group, based in the Department of Education and Science.

The increase was linked to staff performance and an action plan was submitted for review by the group. But it judged the action plan to be "unsatisfactory" and rejected the pay rise. It now awaits a revised action plan from UCD.

Kieran Allen, Siptu UCD section committee spokesman, said the group did not have the slightest idea what work UCD staff were doing and had not visited the university at any stage.

"Staff in UCD wish to bring it to the attention of the Minister of Education that it is unacceptable that a committee which has no representative of university staff on it, and who make no effort to communicate with university staff, should adjudicate on our pay levels," he said.

A spokeswoman for the department said the Minister had absolutely no role in relation to the pay issue.