“There’s simply no trust from public sector workers anymore in the government.”
OVER 100 lecturers from Mary Immaculate College have rejected the Croke Deal which they describe as ‘a blank cheque’ for the government.
Head of the Mary I branch of the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT), Dr Deirdre McMahon told the Limerick Post what the major bug bear for their members is.
“We’re being asked to sign off on proposals for the Review for Higher Education which essentially would allow the government to have a free reign to do what they wish”.
Referring to the concerns of third level teachers about government plans for redeployment and reorganisation, Dr McMahon said: “there is simply no trust in the government anymore, from public sector workers”.
She explained that due to two paycuts and the income levy most of their members have had a 20% pay cut over the past year.
However although she stated that there is enormous anger in the public sector she feels that industrial action is not the answer.
She believes that the moratorium on recruitment has damaged third level education. “The number of people who are on short term contracts which are not being renewed is increasing the workload and putting pressure on most institutions,” she said and voicing her belief that the public have a false perception of academics, the 20th century history lecturer said:
“We didn’t have a nine to five shift for the past two weeks we have been marking exam scripts which is seven day a week work. People think that we just sun ourselves during the summer but we have to prepare new courses”.
She said that many IFUT members were bitterly angered by media coverage last year which suggested that public sector workers are the root of the country’s fiscal crisis.
“I find it ironic that the Croke Park Deal was announced on the same day as the full extent of the cost of NAMA was revealed to the public”.
IFUT members are now determined that they will not be bound by acceptance of the Croke Park Deal by the country’s two largest unions SIPTU and IMPACT.
