University College Cork (UCC) yesterday defended its decision to refer to the Supreme Court a case taken by male security staff seeking equal pay with female workers at the college.
In a highly unusual move, the university is seeking to avoid a potential €1.7 million payout to 42 of its staff by challenging a decision of the Labour Court.
The High Court last month upheld a Labour Court ruling that staff were entitled to equal pay under employment equality legislation. This followed an initial appeal by the workers to the equality officer, who also ruled in their favour.
"This is something which the university feels very strongly about," a UCC spokesman said. "This is not being done for financial reasons . . . We believe our case is absolutely correct as a point of principle. It arose because UCC is trying to do right by its staff." According to the university, it had sought to facilitate two switchboard operators who wanted to job-share.
SIPTU, the union representing the staff in question, had used two female job-sharing switchboard operators at UCC as comparators in their case.
The university believes the different rates of pay were achieved through negotiations with unions and were in fact unisex rates.
"It is ironic that SIPTU is seeking to derive advantage from this only because UCC is being a progressive employer. It seems counter-productive if SIPTU takes this approach to progressive policies."
However, SIPTU's regional secretary, Mr Gene Mealey, yesterday denied that the union had sought to claim any advantage.
"We are seeking to represent our members in the quest for equal pay," he said. "We launched a legitimate claim. It was a legitimate claim which has been upheld by three hearings at this point in time.
"We await the outcome of the judicial process," he said.
Earlier this week, UCC president, Prof Gerry Wrixon, wrote to all staff warning that benchmarking pay increases might not be given unless the governing body of the university is allowed to run a budget deficit.
UCC risks running a deficit, its spokesman said, because the Government had imposed costs such as benchmarking, while not providing adequate funding to meet those costs.
Under the Universities Act of 1997, if a university has a budget deficit, it must inform its governing body. That body should then inform the Higher Education Authority if it decides to allow this deficit. This in turn will be the first charge on the budget in the next financial year.