UCC and State set for High Court battle

The disagreement between UCC and the Irish government over an €8.3m pension liability is set to be resolved in the High Court this summer after a member of staff took a case which lists the university and the Departments of Finance and Education as defendants.The plaintiff is seeking to resolve the matter which relates to added years, a pension top-up often awarded to staff that would not be in the position to work for 40 years by the age of 65 due to minimum qualification and experience requirements. Neither UCC nor the state believe they are liable for the added years component of the pensions.

 The dispute centres on an €8.3m pension liability

Third-level pension funds were transferred to the state in 2010, who now control the assets and liabilities, making the UCC case one which will be followed intently by other institutions, as well as the state.The government currently pay the pensions through UCC but the dispute centres on UCC’s belief that the state controls all of the pension fund’s liabilities, as well as its assets, while the state currently maintains that it is not responsible for the figure.Michael Murphy, President of UCC, surmised that it was a case of the Minister of Finance changing the terms of the deal:“The arrangement was that the state would take on responsibility for pensions in the university into the future and on the basis that there would be no change in the terms and conditions of the staff.“Subsequent to the transfer, the decisions on what pension you would get were now decisions made by the Minister for Finance, technically. The Minister for Finance decided to change the practice that the university had in place for the last 30 plus years, which resulted in a number of staff not getting the pension, particularly the added years component.”The college was criticised by the national spending watchdog, the Comptroller & Auditor General, who believe that UCC’s treatment of the figure was not in accordance with accounting standards. However, Deloitte, UCC’s other auditors, have not raised such objections.University officials also added that the €8.3m gap would only become realised if all staff retired tomorrow and decreases year-on-year as affected staff need less added years to achieve the 40-year target.The Departments of Education and Finance both declined to comment on the matter which is set to reach the High Court in June.