Top academics get backdated wage rises worth over €10,000
UP to 300 senior university professors are getting backdated 8pc pay rises which will amount to more than €10,000 each.
The €3m bill for additional pay was sanctioned by Minister Batt O'Keeffe's Department of Education and Science last month, the Irish Independent has learned. Up to 5.5pc will be backdated to September 2007 and the remaining 2.5pc to last March.
The disclosure of the 7.5-8pc pay rise comes as Government engages in tough talks with the social partners about slashing pay and public spending -- and will only add to the budget woes of the universities, which are facing severe cutbacks.
The salary scale for professors starts at €123,449, rising to €158,644 for those at the top.
The 2.5pc rise was due under the national pay agreement. The 5-5.5pc increase was recommended two years ago by the O'Brien Review Group on Higher Renumeration in the Public Sector. It has already been paid to other public-sector groups, but was held up in this case because of questions over unauthorised allowances paid to some academics.
This was challenged by the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT), which argued that it was unfair on those who had no issues over their allowances.
General secretary Michael Jennings said it was unfair to penalise all university professors because some senior people in the universities were awarded unauthorised allowances.
Letters sanctioning the increases were sent by the department last month to several institutions, including DCU, the University of Limerick, UCD and Trinity, although payment remains delayed in some instances where special allowances remain an issue.
Trinity provost Dr John Hegarty held a special meeting of senior academics in TCD on Tuesday to discuss the matter.
One academic source said the pay rises were a serious embarrassment for the universities, coming at a time when economists were calling for pay restraint. Another said there was annoyance over the fact that academics who never took on extra duties, such as dean or head of school, for which they received a small allowance, were getting their money while hard workers who took on the extra duties were not.
It is understood there were appeals to those present not to accept the rises until all the senior professors got them. But this was not met with universal favour.
The IFUT general secretary said last night that "if patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, then 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".
He said a distinction had to be made between those hard- working academics who took on onerous extra duties such as head of school, for which they received a modest allowance -- as low as €2,500 in some cases-- and those who had been awarded substantial allowances.
The latter group had caused many of the pay problems in the universities, he suggested.
- John Walshe
