UCD Foundation have clarified that they do intend to pay student workers at levels in line with the national minimum wage, after an email purported to show a level of pay being offered that was significantly below the national minimum of €11.30 per hour.
In an email to students, the foundation invited applicants to work as callers in their upcoming Spring Telephone Campaign, in which workers would be tasked with contacting alumni to gain feedback on their time at university, and ask for financial contributions to various projects around UCD.
The email, which included testimony from past students who had taken part in the programme, then detailed that callers would be paid at a rate of €11.04 per hour, significantly below the legal minimum of €11.30 per hour.
At present, anyone who is over the age of 20 in Ireland is entitled to the legal minimum wage. There are a few specifications that relate to separately negotiated pay deals with certain sectors of the labour force, such as cleaners, but none which apply to the case of UCD Foundation’s employees.
Upon being questioned by the University Observer, Annual Giving Assistant Gracy Nasralla clarified that there had been an error in the composition of the email, and that the rate of pay announced was incorrect.
“This was indeed an error from our end when submitting the advertisement for the student role”, they stated via email, continuing that “this job advertisement was based on the format of a previous advertisement and therefore the rate of pay was outdated. We have rectified this error from our end on the UCD Foundation website and we will notify all of the students”.
The statement concluded that “Our intent was never to include an incorrect rate of pay and this was a genuine oversight”.
Previous callers, recruited in January and September 2022, were paid at rates of €10.50 and €10.61 per hour respectively, in line with the national minimum required at those times.