Recruitment of Hourly Occasional Staff

Recruitment of Hourly Occasional Staff

INTRODUCTION

1. This policy outlines the guidelines and procedures for hiring hourly occasional staff. The procedures have been developed to comply with legislative requirements and appropriate internal controls and procedures. This policy and procedure replaces the Part-Time Nomination Process.

APPLICATION

2. This Policy applies to all hourly occasional staff including the categories of Tutor/Demonstrator, hourly occasional Assistant Lecturer, hourly occasional Evening Lecturer, Visiting/Guest Lecturer and hourly occasional Supervisors. A separate policy is available governing the Recruitment of Student Help, please see http://www.ucc.ie/en/hr/policies/forms/ . The University has established pay rates for each of these categories of staff. These pay rates are adjusted as per the relevant National Wage Increases and are the only established rates to be used when paying the categories of staff listed above.

3. For staff in the categories listed above who work at least 366 hours per annum, a Post Proposal Form must be completed and submitted for approval. A relevant contract will then be issued by the Department of Human Resources.

GUIDELINES

4. Categories of occasional staff are listed and defined in Appendix 1. Only staff categories listed are to be processed using this policy. Separate policies are available governing the Recruitment of Student Help and Once-Off Payments. Please see http://www.ucc.ie/en/hr/policies/forms/ .

5. This procedure involves the hiring School/Department and the Payroll Office.

6. All documentation must be completed as set out in this Policy to ensure that the University meets its statutory obligations to occasional staff and to allow payment to be made in a timely and appropriate manner.

7. Failure to comply with documentation requirements or payment deadlines by employing departments will result in the individual employee not receiving correct payments.

8. A contract of employment MUST be issued to each occasional staff member carrying out work in the University. This is a legal requirement and an entitlement of the staff member concerned.

9. Hourly occasional staff payments may be processed as hourly returns on a monthly basis or as a monthly salary identified at the beginning of the employment term. Either method of payment must be based on the established pay rates for such staff (Appendix 1).

10. Under the Working Time Act 1997, and in compliance with other employment legislation, the number of hours any employee is expected to work must be identified in the contract of employment.

11. Copies of all relevant documentation MUST be kept by the hiring School/Department and will be audited on an on-going basis by the University’s Internal Auditor and the Department of Human Resources.

12. Employing schools/departments will be circulated with updated pay scales as increases occur or are available at anytime from the Department of Human Resource’s website http://www.ucc.ie/en/hr/salaryscales/.

13. Membership of the Group Personal Accident Scheme shall apply to all employees, subject to the terms, exclusions and conditions of the insurance policy. The salary quoted is subject to a deduction from salary at the rate of .06 of 1%. Signature of the Occasional Staff Contract authorises deduction of same. Please see http://secretary.ucc.ie/General/insurance.asp.

14. An Annual Leave entitlement of 8% of total hours is applicable to hourly occasional staff. Unused annual leave entitlement will be paid on termination of the contract and should be calculated on 8% of total earnings with a department. Earning figures are displayed on monthly Pay Reports issued by the Finance Department. In the month of payment of annual leave, please return 8% of total earnings on the monthly Timesheet, highlighting this as an ‘Annual Leave Payment’. For the positions of Senior Demonstrator, Senior Medical Demonstrator and Foreign Language Demonstrator, where annual salaries are predetermined, annual leave entitlement must be taken within the term of the contract as paid time off.

15. Hourly occasional staff, who have worked at least 40 hours in the 5 weeks ending on the day before the public holiday, are entitled to public holiday benefits.  Hourly Occasional Staff rostered to work on a public holiday: If an hourly occasional member of staff has worked at least 40 hours in the 5 weeks before the public holiday and is rostered to work on a public holiday, he/she is entitled to that day off as paid leave.  Hourly Occasional Staff not rostered to work on a public holiday: If an hourly occasional member of staff has worked at least 40 hours in the 5 weeks before the public holiday and is not rostered to work on a public holiday, he/she is entitled to onefifth of his/her weekly pay as compensation for the public holiday. This is calculated as follows: Pay for a public holiday is equivalent to the average daily earnings for normal working hours, calculated by reference to the earnings over the 13 week period ending on the day before the public holiday, divided by one fifth. The public holiday entitlement for the staff member should be entered on the Monthly Timesheet, on the line following their hourly returns, and clearly identified as Public Holiday Entitlement. This Timesheet should be sent to payroll before their advertised deadline, in order to ensure payments can be made in a timely and appropriate manner. Please see http://www.ucc.ie/en/hr/policies/forms for further information.

16. In accordance with the 2012 to 2016 National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Acts all staff members who will have regular access to children or vulnerable adults in the course of their employment with UCC will require Garda vetting.  The Act provides a legislative basis for the mandatory vetting for such persons and it is now a criminal offence for organisations to fail to carry out the necessary vetting of such employees, contractors and volunteers.   Appointees to roles that require such access are not permitted to commence employment until the vetting process is complete. Breach of this Act is an offence and attracts both imprisonment and a fine.   Further details regarding vetting and the vetting process can be found on www.ucc.ie/en/hr/gardavetting.  

 

 

PROCEDURE

16. An OCCASIONAL STAFF CONTRACT (OSC)(please see http://www.ucc.ie/en/hr/policies/forms ) must be completed on commencement for each staff member by the employing School/Department. This must also be completed in the case of any research funded hourly paid employee working less than 20% of full-time working hours annually. The Head of School/Department or his/her designate must sign the contract. The employee must sign the contract. The original contract must be kept by the employee and a copy kept at School/Department level for at least ten years. All details must be completed on this form (Please note that any research funded hourly paid employee working 20% or more of full-time working hours annually should be processed through the Employment Agreement Form for Research Staff (see http://www.ucc.ie/en/hr/policies/forms/research/).

17. In exceptional circumstances, payment for additional hours worked (in 1 month only), over and above those indicated in the Occasional Staff Contract, should be processed via the monthly Timesheet and returned to the payroll office before their advertised deadline. However, please note that if a change in hours is necessitated beyond a month, a new Occasional Staff Contract must be issued.

18. Hiring departments must complete a PAYROLL AUTHORISATION FORM (PAF) (see http://www.ucc.ie/en/hr/policies/forms ) annually for all hourly occasional staff members they are hiring for that year. Ordinarily, this is done at the beginning of the academic year. Subsequent forms can be submitted for staff that are recruited throughout the year or at the beginning of a month thereafter.

19. The Payroll Authorisation Form (PAF) is the initial authorisation to Payroll that payment of the listed staff has been sanctioned by the Head of School/Department. All details in this form must be completed in full and returned to Payroll before the advertised payroll deadline of the first month for which payment is to be made. Non-completion will result in the payment not being processed.

20. A Paypath Form (see http://www.ucc.ie/en/hr/policies/forms ) should be completed by each hourly occasional member of staff and returned to Payroll before the payroll deadline of the first month for which payment is required.

21. For salaried staff, details on the Payroll Authorisation Form (PAF) will suffice for the processing of payment. For staff on hourly timesheets (please see http://www.ucc.ie/en/hr/policies/forms ) detailed timesheets must also be returned to Payroll before their advertised deadline for the corresponding employees listed on the Payroll Authorisation Form. For research funded hourly paid employees, this Timesheet must be returned to the Research Office before the 8th of the month. Copies of these forms are kept by the employing School/Department.

22. Hourly Timesheets must not be forwarded to Payroll unless the Occasional Staff Contract (OSC) is issued and the Payroll Authorisation Form (PAF) is completed.

23. Objective grounds for hiring staff in these categories must be stated in the contract and must be one of the following –

(i) Funding The objective grounds for issuing this specified purpose/fixed term contract rather than a permanent contract is that funding is available from for a fixed duration only. This specified purpose/fixed term contract underpins the fulfilment of a legitimate objective of the university to provide resources where required

(ii) Leave Cover The objective grounds for issuing this specified purpose contract/fixed-term contract, rather than a permanent contract, is to cover the of while they are absent from this post. The contract will end on the return to this post of or their resignation, or termination of contract or retirement, whichever first occurs. This specified purpose contract/fixed term contract underpins the fulfilment of a legitimate objective of the university to facilitate its staff with access to all the required statutory leave entitlements and other leave facilities, and when so doing to provide interim replacement resources where required.

(iii) Temporary Vacant Post The objective grounds for issuing this specified purpose contract/fixed-term contract, rather than a permanent contract, is to enable the duties of to be carried out pending the completion of the approval and selection process for a permanent appointee. As such this contract will terminate on the commencement of the permanent appointee, or any decision by the university not to proceed to creating a permanent post, whichever first occurs. This specified purpose contract/fixed term contract underpins the fulfilment of a legitimate objective of the university to provide interim cover pending the completion of the regular and agreed process for the selection and appointment of a permanent candidate.

(iv) New Programmes The objective grounds for issuing a specified purpose contract/fixed term contract, rather than a permanent contract, are to enable the development of a programme in . The continuation of the role will be dependent on the success and growth of the programme as evidenced by student demand. This contract will end on at the latest. It may terminate sooner than this with due notice given, if the development of the programme is not progressing as anticipated. This specified purpose contract/fixed term contract underpins the fulfilment of a legitimate objective of the university to pilot new programmes and test their viability and specifically to pilot a programme in

(v) Projects The objective grounds for issuing this specified purpose contract/fixed-term contract, rather than a permanent contact, is to provide for the . This specified purpose contract/fixed-term contract will terminate once the is completed. This specified purpose contract/fixed-term contract underpins the fulfilment of a legitimate objective of the university to provide temporary additional resources or specific expertise to projects which have a defined end date

(vi) Specialist Expertise/Practitioners You will be employed as a . This is a specified purpose contract/fixed-term contract rather than a permanent contract as its purpose is ). This specified purpose contract/fixed-term contract underpins the fulfilment of a legitimate objective of the university to provide temporary, specialist expertise to projects and which therefore, have a defined end date

(vii) Support by Registered Student The nature of this employment contract is Fixed Term due to the purpose of this post being to support an academic and/or administrative requirement during the period of registration as a student with the University. This contract is, therefore, issued on such objective grounds.

CONTACT: Department of Human Resources and Organisational Development, University College Cork, Block E, Food Science Building, U.C.C. Tel. 4903690. 

 

 

APPENDIX 1

CATEGORIES OF HOURLY OCCASIONAL STAFF
A.      Tutor/Demonstrator

Qualified/professional engaged to provide expertise and support a course or members of academic staff in the performance of their teaching/lecturing duties.  Responsible for setting up and demonstrating experiments/systems/methods to students, normally in a laboratory context.

Normal contractual duties include:

Preparation (in consultation with the relevant lecturer as appropriate);

Consultation with students;

Tutorials;

Occasional seminars;

Coursework Correction;

Associated required administration.       

 

§  Undergraduate Tutor and/or Demonstrator

Registered undergraduate student tutoring/demonstrating to undergraduate students

  • Postgraduate Tutor and/or Demonstrator

Ordinarily registered postgraduate student tutoring and/or demonstrating to undergraduate students.

  • Senior Demonstrators

Ordinarily postgraduate student or non-registered hourly occasional Senior Demonstrator demonstrating laboratory practicals to students.

§  Senior Medical Demonstrator

Ordinarily postgraduate student or non-registered hourly occasional Senior Demonstrator working in a medical discipline within the College of Medicine and Health.

  • Non-registered Tutor and/or Demonstrator (non-registered students)

Non-registered hourly occasional  qualified/professional staff employed to provide expertise and specialist tutoring and/or demonstrating.

§  FoReign Language Demonstrator

A Foreign Language Demonstrator or Language-Teaching Assistant, (written and oral classes) assists in ensuring that students are phonetically correct when speaking the particular language they are studying.  They can be appointed on an exchange basis with partner universities.

B.       Hourly occasional Assistant Lecturer

Hourly occasional Assistant Lecturer, engaged at an hourly rate primarily to lecture, and to conduct seminars and examine.  Rate to incorporate teaching, preparation and student consultation.

C.      hourly occasional Evening Lecturer

Engaged at an hourly rate to undertake teaching/examining at evenings or weekends where relevant.  Rate to incorporate teaching, preparation and student consultation.

D.      Visiting/guest Lecturer

Engagement of specialised expertise from an external source to provide ‘guest lectures’, seminars, tutorials on an ad–hoc basis, usually on a sessional basis, although this may not always be the case.

E.       hourly occasional Supervisors

Hourly occasional  professional supervisor engaged to provide specialist student supervision as a requirement of the course.

F.       Student Help

Registered full-time and part-time students (undergraduate/postgraduate) carrying out specified duties under supervision, student help rate of pay.

Hourly Occasional Staff - Contract of Employment (825kB) (825kB)

Payroll Authorization Form (PAF) (16kB) (16kB) (16kB)

Human Resources

Acmhainní Daonna

Ground Floor, Block E, Food Science Building, UCC

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