Recruitment of Hourly Occasional Staff
LAST REVISED NOVEMBER 2011
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 343 hours per annum, a Post
Proposal Form (http://www.ucc.ie/en/hr/policies/forms/staffing/) 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.
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 <name of source> 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 <insert leave type> of <insert name> while they are absent
from this post. The contract will end on the return to this post of <insert name> 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 <insert role> 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 <insert name>. 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 <insert date> 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 <insert name>
(v)
Projects
The objective grounds for issuing this specified purpose contract/fixed-term contract, rather than
a permanent contact, is to provide <insert role/title or describe specific expertise> for the <insert
project name>. This specified purpose contract/fixed-term contract will terminate once the <insert
project phase> 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 <post title>. This is a specified purpose contract/fixed-term contract
rather than a permanent contract as its purpose is <eg: to enable the building of a prototype liquid
metal mirror and then a novel x-ray source. These two projects are critical elements in the
provision of high level technical and innovative support to the Laser Physics Group, enabling the
development of both of these prototypes and ascertaining the viability of their design>). 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. 4903621.
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 Faculty 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. The rate is
applicable to specific evening programmes delivered at evening/weekends. Application of the rate
is determined at Department/Discipline level.
D.
Visiting/guest Lecturer
Engagement of specialised expertise from an external source to provide ‘guest lectures’, seminars,
tutorials on 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 students (undergraduate/postgraduate) carrying out specified duties under supervision,
student help rate of pay.