Admin staff in Third Level colleges during closure?

Whats happening to admin/support staff in third level colleges during the current lockdown i wonder? Colleges seem to be operating at differing levels of closure. For colleges completely closed what happens going forward? Will staff continue to get paid, or have to sign on or what?

gauchesnell

staff for the most part are working from home. Not all colleges are closed. That may change after today. Staff may be redeployed depends on long this lasts.

pretty*monster

As far as I’m aware no colleges are completely closed insofar as were still have registered students on the books and are trying as best we can to educate them at a distance. The admins I know are working from home managing student queries, ed tech, admissions, hr, finance, etc, some of the work is harder since the closure, some is a bit easier.

gauchesnell

yeah I agree. Im admin in a university. My university is still open i.e buildings are open but the majority of admin/support have moved to working from home. All teaching already moved online. Closure - to us - just means buildings are closed. Work continues as much as possible. As stated above some work cant be done as needs to be done on campus but most is online now.

Not sure what will happen following todays announcement but I assume all our buildings will now close. Again closure for us just means physical closure of buildings.

Thanks for the replies guys. I work in a library in an institute of technology. Our campus has been closed since Thursday evening 12th March. No staff allowed on site. Lecturers would be working away online with classes etc. No real sense of direction from senior management as to what the rest of us should be doing though tbh.

gauchesnell

maybe check what you can access from home and then drop your manager an email i.e can you access your emails/do you have a laptop. Are queries still coming from students via email. Are you still expected to answer them.

For example I can only access a certain amount of systems from home - other systems require a work laptop which wasnt provided to certain grades. Senior management and other grades including admin were provided with them.

Safety is paramount.

Did you get the DPER updates. Were updates issued by your line manager etc. Again my university is still open (i.e. buildings are open) but very little staff there now except buildings and cleaning staff. All admin have now moved to working from home with varying levels of access/limited as to what we can do.

Again check what updates you have received from your IOT but yes we will still get paid but we may be redeployed. I hope to be redeployed to be honest. Would like to help if I can

gauchesnell

gauchesnell wrote: »

maybe check what you can access from home and then drop your manager an email i.e can you access your emails/do you have a laptop. Are queries still coming from students via email. Are you still expected to answer them.

For example I can only access a certain amount of systems from home - other systems require a work laptop which wasnt provided to certain grades. Senior management and other grades including admin were provided with them.

Safety is paramount.

Did you get the DPER updates. Were updates issued by your line manager etc. Again my university is still open (i.e. buildings are open) but very little staff there now except buildings and cleaning staff. All admin have now moved to working from home with varying levels of access/limited as to what we can do.

Again check what updates you have received from your IOT but yes we will still get paid but we may be redeployed. I hope to be redeployed to be honest. Would like to help if I can

Hi,

thanks for that reply. Yes I've read the latest update. This one is dated the 27 March.

https://www.education.ie/en/Circulars-and-Forms/Active-Circulars/cl0026_2020.pdf

If you are not deemed essential to provide education, research, support services to students, you could be reassigned to provide other essential services according to the circular. Currently looking after my mam here in her house as the home care service was no longer deemed safe to continue, so it would have to be a work at home option if i was assigned other tasks.

gauchesnell

that should be fine. If you are in a union remember you can always ask them for advice. With the current restrictions while my university is still open (ridiculous I know) nearly 100% are staff are working from home. A lot of tasks can only be accessed with a work laptop.

The safety of yourself and your family is paramount. Dont worry about anything else.