IFUT Executive to meet tomorrow (Monday) on post Croke Park situation

Breach of Trust a major issue to be discussed

Sunday, May 19th, 2013

The Executive of the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) will hold an emergency meeting tomorrow morning (Monday May 20th) to discuss it position in relation to entering talks, following its members’ decisive rejection of the Croke Park II proposals.

According to IFUT General Secretary, Mike Jennings, a major obstacle to entering talks is the profound anger of IFUT members that the government is seeking to get away with a blatant breach of faith on the original Croke Park Agreement.

“IFUT members provided enormous concessions on productivity as part of the original Croke Park proposals, on the basis that there would be no further pay cuts or related demands. All of these concessions were taken full advantage of, only for members to be confronted with a new set of demands for pay reductions. This is precisely what we were assured would not happen.

“IFUT members are now rightly asking ‘how can we trust people who have proven themselves unworthy of any trust,’” Mike Jennings said.

The two major items to be discussed by the Executive are:

• What real changes can be negotiated to differentiate any new proposals from those that were emphatically rejected in the previous members ballot on Croke Park II?
• Even if such changes are negotiated, how can members have certainty that they will be honoured, and not cast aside at a whim as in the case of Croke Park I?

ENDS
For further information on this press release please contact:
John Gallagher, John Gallagher Consulting Tel. 087 9369888

Mike Jennings, General Secretary, IFUT Tel. 087 6776747