While college departments are being forced to make large cutbacks to balance their books, it emerged last week that a pay increase for up to 300 of the country’s leading professors is imminent.
While college departments are being forced to make large cutbacks to balance their books, it emerged last week that a pay increase for up to 300 of the country’s leading professors is imminent.
The Department for Education and Science, is reported to have sanctioned the €3 million increases. The pay rises of 7.5–8% come at a time when some senior college staff have been asked to take cuts of as much as 10%. If the pay rise were to materialise, it would be backdated to September 2007.
Professors’ salaries start at €123,449 and can rise to €158,644, which means many professors can expect as much as €10,000 extra. These rises came about as a result of the last national pay agreement which agreed a 2.5% pay rise and the O’Brien Review Group on Higher Renumeration in the Public Sector which recommended a 5–5.5% increase. However, while other groups within the public sector have received this payment, the delay in awarding this increase to lecturers is due to the unauthorised allowances paid to some leading academics.
It is understood Provost John Hegarty convened a special meeting of senior academics on Tuesday 27th January. During the meeting, he put forward a proposal that lecturers forego the pay rise at least until issues regarding unsanctioned payments have been resolved.
However reports suggest that this proposal was rejected by those present.
One academic source has stated that the pay increase is an embarrassment coming as it does at a time when some lecturers are not having their contracts renewed and other non-academic staff are seeing their pay cut.
The Irish Federation of University Teachers, the representative body for University lecturers in Ireland, has stated that they do not believe that all lecturers should be punished as a result of those that have received unauthorised payments.
Michael Jennings of IFUT stated, “It’s one thing to impose collective punishment on people for almost 18 months but it is appalling to expect that kind of collective self-sacrifice”.
The IFUT general secretary went on to state “appeals to the spirit of collegiality have to be met with a wry smile, especially when they come from people who push the corporate agenda in the university”.
