FINANCE Minister Caoimhe Archibald has refused to comment on calls for South West College chairman Nick O’Sheil to resign from one of his roles.

Dr. O’Shiel is facing a call to step down after the University and College Union (UCU) accused him of making misleading promises of a pay rise to staff, characterised as “an act of extreme bad faith.”

It has been claimed that Dr. O’Sheil offered a pay increase, for which he didn’t have Department of Economy (DfE) approval, in a bid to avert further industrial action.

The claims were exposed in an email trail by The Impartial Reporter, and relate to his role as Chairman of the College Employers’ Forum (CEF). The claims have been strongly rejected by Dr. O’Sheil.

Yesterday (Wednesday), Minister Archibald was questioned on these concerns during a visit to South West College in Enniskillen where she met with representatives from the college’ Senior Management team as part of the launch of the new Youthscape Plus Programme.

Dr. O’Sheil wasn’t in attendance at the event.

When asked for her reaction to calls for Dr. O’Sheil to resign, Minister Archibald said: “I am not aware of the detail behind that and I wouldn’t want to be commenting on a situation that I’m not fully over the detail of.”

The Minister was also asked for her response to “tensions between staff and management that are causing problems here in the college.”

Minister Archibald, referencing “negotiations on pay”, responded: “Negotiations are ongoing and that’s between the unions and the employers. One of the first things we were able to do as an Executive was to make that award for public sector pay.

“It was really important to me that we were able to do that early in the mandate, and we obviously had the financial package from the British Government which had some money for public sector pay.

“We were able to get some additional flexibility in relation to the financial package, and put an additional £100m toward the package for public sector pay.

“Obviously, unions and employers are off negotiating, and I would encourage that they are able to continue that and I hope that they can come to a satisfactory deal in respect of this.”

The Minister was asked if the funding package “will help to allay tensions between staff and management” at SWC.

The minister responded: “We were able to make the announcement around the award for public sector pay.

“But obviously, Unions and employers have their own negotiations to happen and have their own processes to go through, and obviously those needs to be respected.

“I would encourage people to continue and I hope we can make a satisfactory outcome in respect of that.”

When asked if the Minister had “concerns about how management is managing discussions around pay”, a press officer directed that previous answers given by the Minister were satisfactory.

Commenting on her visit to South West College in general, Minister Archibald praised the “state-of-the-art” facilities in Enniskillen.

“I am delighted to visit the campus here,” the Minister said. “It’s a state-of-the-art campus and it’s an amazing facility.

“This project, Youthscape, is one of the first projects that is being approved by the new PEACEPLUS programme, and it is doing really important work for young people who are facing barriers to employment and training. “