CITY TRIBUNE
NUIG resorting to low-paid agency staff, says SIPTU
The “unfair and discriminatory” employment practices at NUI Galway were highlighted at a trade union conference in Dublin last week, which focused on precarious employment in higher education.
SIPTU’s seminar at Liberty Hall shone a spotlight on unsavoury work practices at NUIG, which are said to be widespread in Ireland’s universities and colleges.
The trade union has launched a national campaign to tackle precarious employment in the sector.
“This campaign is prompted by the spotlight shone on unfair and discriminatory employment practices at NUIG over the last two years. While it is a sector-wide probably, NUIG is, once again, among the worst offenders,” Maggie Ronayne, SIPTU Equality Committee spokesperson at NUIG.
Precarious employment can take many forms. It includes the outsourcing of jobs such as cleaning and grounds staff, and the rapid acceleration of low-paid agency workers instead of secure administrative staff.
Other instances include the routine use of repeat fixed-term contracts to prevent people becoming entitled to permanent positions. It also includes discrimination against teaching and research staff on Contracts of Indefinite Duration’ (CIDs) although these are permanent contracts; and precarious teaching and research contracts including casualisation of work and zero hours’ contracts.
Examples of some or all of the above, which have happened or continue to occur at NUIG, were highlighted at the conference.
The discrepancy between contract cleaners and those employed by NUIG was highlighted by SIPTU.
“Cleaners employed by the university directly make €15 to €17 per hour depending on when they began employment, while their private sector colleagues, doing essentially the same work, make €9.75, barely above the minimum wage,” the seminar was told.
Meanwhile, ground staff at NUIG have not been replaced. “In the past year, the numbers directly employed have gone from seven to four, with the remaining staff trying to cover the same workload.”
Data released under the Freedom of Information Act show that some €1.22 million was paid by NUIG in 2015 to a private cleaning contractor; and a further €169,000 was paid to a contracted landscaping company for six months.
Increasingly, low-paid agency staff are used by NUIG instead of permanent administrative posts. According to information received by SIPTU, through FOI, spending on temporary administrative staff from agencies more than doubled from 2013 to 2015, increasing from €980,346 to €2,166,697.
The spend on temporary administrative staff from ICE increased from €980,346 in 2013 to €1,748,003 in 2015. Unijobs, a jobs agency, was used to recruit temporary staff for exam invigilation and a registration hotline from 2014 onwards. In 2014 the spend was €93,194 while in 2015 the spend was €418,694.
According to SIPTU, there are problems with CID contracts also. A CID is a permanent contract but CID staff at NUIG experience diminished terms and status which creates financial insecurity and future career and job insecurity, according to SIPTU.
It claims to have evidence of a variety of forms of unfair treatment and inequity including that some staff are working without payment for the summer months.
A number, particularly those on teaching contracts, are working for wages well below the average industrial wage, which the trade union says it is pursuing.
The seminar also highlighted a “rapid growth” in the numbers of academics on precarious contracts or employed on a casual basis in higher education in Ireland.
NUIG appears to employ a very high number of staff on a casual basis, according to SIPTU, which received information under FOI showing that the number of staff completing a timesheet in order to get paid is 1,842, a large number of whom are likely to be casually employed.
Figures in the Cush Report into employment at third level show that NUIG said in 2015 it employed 1,646 teaching staff who it describes as hourly paid equating to 85.6 full-time equivalents.
“There are many examples of the precarious nature of part time employment. At NUIG, many members on part time contracts report pressure to carry out full time workloads,” the seminar was told.
Dr James Browne, NUIG president, in a recent interview with its alumni magazine, Cois Coiribe, said he is confident the university is now ‘doing the right thing’ on gender equality.
But NUIG’s SIPTU members, who attended the conference this week, said the university has a long way to go on precarious employment, which disproportionately discriminates against women workers.
“I really think that the reaction of NUIG management has been spin, spin and more spin. Management has always seen the discrimination problem as a public relations problem that can be solved through PR.
“What Jim Browne was quoted as saying last week, that the university is on the right track on the discrimination issue, is worlds apart from what our members are experiencing,” said Maggie Ronayne, SIPTU Equality Committee spokesperson at NUIG.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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