Unite HE reps attended a demonstration on the low pay offer for 2011 outside the UCEA offices in London on Wed 8th Feb

• UCEA  offered 0.5% in 2009, 0.4% in 2010 and 0.5% in 2011 a total of 1.4%
• The inflation rate over the same period was over 12.6%.
• Salaries depreciated in real terms by over 11% to 2011.

In many Universities pay increases were far higher for those above the 51 point pay spine. Some were well over 10% and in some institutions above 15%. This spike in above pay spine staff has not gone unnoticed. The Times Higher has carried out research into Vice Chancellor and senior staffs pay over a similar period 2009 – 2011, this has shown a higher rate of increase.

As the Telegraph reported in 2010, the increase in salaries for a selection of VC’s were as example, Wendy Purcell, Plymouth – 20% (£283,504) Chris Jenks, Brunel – 18% (£280,000) Andrew Hamilton, Oxford – 17% (£382,000) Shirley Pearce, Loughborough – 15% (£275,365) Noel Lloyd, Aberystwyth – 13% (£208,000).

Clearly we are not all in this together.

Letter to Jocelyn Prudence, UCEA Chief Executive

Unite Press Release. 25 January, 2012

Unite university staff work-to-rule over ‘lousy’ pay offer

University staff, members of Unite, are working-to-rule in protest at the ‘lousy’ pay offer of £150.

Unite represents 20,000 staff – from professors to porters – at Britain’s Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) – and is the only union to have rejected the derisory offer of £150-a-year for all grades to run from 1 August last year for 2011/12.

Unite national officer for education, Mike Robinson said: ‘Our members voted for industrial action, short of strike action, over this lousy deal at the end of last year – and are sticking to the letter of their contracts with no working outside their contractual hours.’

‘Our members have withdrawn the goodwill and flexibility that is so vital for the running of an academic institution.’

‘The HEIs – represented by the Universities and Colleges Employers’ Association (UCEA) – can well afford to be more generous at a time of soaring household bills for working people. For example, Imperial College, London has given its staff £500-a-year more on all scales.’

‘Unite will be boycotting future meetings with the UCEA and will be asking Shabana Mahmood, the shadow business minister not to attend a HEI strategic conference.’

In a letter to UCEA Chief Executive, Jocelyn Prudence, Mike Robinson said: ‘Unite members will also be asked to raise the profile of the low offer on pay for 2011 in their own HEIs, as publically as possible.’

Heads of elite universities’ earnings exceed £333,000 on average, despite squeeze on institutions’ overall budgets. Read the full article in the Guardian

What about Stirling? See the list here

Other articles:

Vice-chancellors ‘receive up to £40,000 in benefits’

University head’s ‘salaries soar’

Cable attacks vice-chancellors over pay; Business secretary says university heads have little sense of ‘self-sacrifice’ needed

Mike Robinson has issued a letter updating members on the current pay offer and ongoing dispute. Read it here.

Last week all Unite members in Higher Eduction were balloted on industrial action with regard to the current pay offer. The results have now been published.

Please also see this letter from Mike Robinson – National Officer for further information as to what this means.

Unite, the largest union in the country, is balloting its members in higher education across the UK for industrial action, following the breakdown of talks over a ‘derisory’ pay offer.

Unite – one of the five unions in the talks – is the first union to reject the pay offer which is a lump sum of £150 for all staff. It will be balloting its members for industrial action to commence later in November.

Unite national officer for education, Mike Robinson said the offer was ‘derisory’ when set against soaring household bills and an inflation rate of 5.2%. He pointed out that London’s Imperial College, which is outside of the national negotiations, has already offered a £500 lump sum or 2% to its employees, whichever is the greater.

In recent years, staff have accepted below inflation pay increases. In 2009, it was 0.5%; in 2010 0.4% and this year’s offer is worth 0.5% on average. The pay deals run from August each year.

Mike Robinson said: ‘Inflation over the last three years has been 12.4%, so in real terms the offers on pay equate to a pay cut of about 11%. Unite members have had enough and have voted in a recent consultative ballot to reject the offer by a 4-1 majority.’

Unite has members in more than 60 UK universities – about half of the total. Most of the Unite members are in the older Russell group-style research intensive universities which have substantial cash reserves and easily able to improve on the existing offer. Unite has exhausted the disputes procedure.

The Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) was suggesting a reference to the conciliation service, Acas, but Unite has firmly rejected that route, unless the employers give some indication that the £150 pay offer will be improved.

The ballot is expected to open on 28 October and close on 17 November. Unite is one of five unions involved in the pay talks. The others are Unison, GMB, UCU and EIS.

Unite covers staff across all the UK universities from academics and academic-related staff to technicians, skilled administrators, estates, security and domestic staff.

The higher education national consultative pay ballot  took place over the last few weeks and closed on the 9th September.

The overall result was a 4 to 1 ratio rejection by participating Unite members of the offer to increase scale points by £150 for 2011. This vote return is an increase both in terms of participation and overall rejection from the 2010 consultative ballot result.

As such it represents a substantial rejection of the pay offer. The next procedural step is a formal dispute level meeting with the employers association, UCEA, to try and resolve the impasse.

Already Unison and GMB have rejected the same offer and are in the dispute process.   UCU have not announced their response yet but have declared a dispute on the USS pensions changes.

The Unite National Education Industry Committee (NEIC) met on the 12th January 2011 to consider the outcome of the negotiations and the offer letter of the 16th January. In a full debate the inadequacies of the offer was considered but also the potential improvements especially the training, development and apprentice issues and forum.

The NEIC also recognised that many members were concerned about their own future and to progress the issue to a dispute including the possibility of strike was not high in members minds at this stage. The NEIC remained deeply unhappy about the financial aspects of the offer and agreed UCEA should be advised in no uncertain terms of that deep dissatisfaction. However on the main point on whether to accept or reject the offer and move to a strike ballot the NEIC voted 17 votes to 3 to accept the offer and draw a line under 2010 in the wish to reopen talks on the same issues in 2011.

Read the full letter from Mike Robinson

Unite have now formally rejected the 0.4% pay offer mad by UCEA in the latest round of negotiations. Read the letter from Mike Robinson to UCEA for further information.

Download the joint unions 2010 pay claim

At the New JNCHES meeting on 29 March, UCEA made an offer to explore how a non-consolidated cash sum equivalent to 0.25% of pay bill could be applied.

The employers made no serious attempt to address the other key elements of the joint union claim; for example, nothing on:

• Job security
• Improving the national framework agreement and terms and conditions of employment
• The assimilation of hourly-paid staff to the national agreement
• Proposals to close the gender pay gap
• Proposals for a national system to pay external examiners

Without producing any convincing evidence, the employers asserted that the effect of incremental increases on the pay bill should be taken into account during pay negotiations. This provoked a strong response from the trade unions. Unlike the private sector who pay the rate for the job from day one in the public sector staff start below the full rate and build up reflecting increasing knowledge and skills – arguably providing a short term subsidy for HE employers.

The employers negotiated a pay deal in 2003 that clearly accepted increments as part of the structure so to complain now, when they have known and presumably budgeted for such increases, is a little disingenuous. They are looking for fig leaves and this will not wash.

The trade union side unanimously rejected the offer. The employers were asked to rethink their position and come to the next meeting with a credible offer.

Another meeting is scheduled for 19 April