UCC to take legal action over dispute at Tyndall
University College Cork is to take legal proceedings in a bid to prevent unions from placing pickets on its campus.
Members of trade unions IFUT and SIPTU at the Tyndall research institute are engaged in industrial action at the college in a row over pay parity.
A number of days of strike have been announced for this month, including a picket of the entrance to the main campus on May 13.
UCC says this will cause disruption for students taking their end of year exams and as a result it is asking the High Court to prevent the strike.
A statement from University College Cork said: "The original notice for industrial action was received on 22nd April 2015. The unions had notified the University that pickets “will be placed at the entrances to the Employment” with industrial action to commence on 30th April 2015, thereby leaving open the prospect of pickets being placed at entrances to UCC Main Campus during the examination period.
"The University immediately responded to this notice with a request for confirmation that, in light of examinations at UCC, pickets will be confined to the entrances to the Tyndall Institute.
"On 23rd April the unions responded to the University formally withdrawing the notice of industrial action and subsequently re-issued the notice specifying that pickets will be placed at Tyndall on 1st, 6th, 7th and 13th May but that they would also be placed at UCC Main Campus on 13th May, thereby continuing to hold open the prospect of the threat of disruption of examinations.
"Having reflected on the immeasurable anxiety, loss and damage to students which the threat of a disruption to examinations is likely to cause, the University through its legal representatives afforded a final opportunity for the unions to entirely withdraw the threat to place pickets on the UCC Main Campus.
"A deadline of 4pm today had been set for a response. In their responses the unions have advised that they intend to picket the UCC Main Campus on 13th May and in this regard the University has been left with no alternative but to make an application to the High Court for the appropriate injunctive relief."
