The Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) has welcomed the decision by the Board of NUI Galway to address glaring gender inequality at the college by announcing a gender quota system for promotions, but says the announcement leaves a number of matters to be addressed.

IFUT Deputy General Secretary, Joan Donegan, said that the move, while a welcome development,  does not resolve the cases of staff  taking current legal cases for denial of promotion in the past and “while good, is not good enough.”

“In November 2014 the Equality Tribunal described a round of promotions for Senior Lecturer in NUIG as ‘ramshackle,’ when it ruled in favour of Micheline Sheehy Skeffington in her discrimination case against the college.”

Joan Donegan said that the issue of  “how promotion quotas will operate in specific situations where very few woman are employed at lower academic level also needs to be addressed.  A rights based approach may be necessary to complement any quota initiative in NUIG.”

The decision on quotas marks a first in terms of the public sector generally.  “It is regrettable that it has taken the college the best part of a decade to produce its first positive response on the glaring discrimination whereby only 14% of full professorship grades are female,” she said.

ENDS

For further information on this media release, please contact:

John Gallagher, John Gallagher Consulting. Tel. 087 9369888

Joan Donegan, Deputy General Secretary, IFUT, Tel 087 1315960