Universities - Middlesex invokes 'get out'
WORKERS, SEPT 2006 ISSUE
Although the lecturers union UCU has agreed a settlement in its national dispute over pay, at least one employer, Middlesex University, has announced its intention to use the employers' "get out" clause.
This clause in the final agreement allowed institutions to delay payment if they could not afford it. In addition Middlesex has signalled that, having agreed some slippage on the implementation date of the national framework (an agreement which pre-dated the pay dispute) with both Unison and UCU, it will not backdate the agreement to the first of August 2006.
Both unions are aware that the university has already received money from the Higher Education funding council to pay for this from 1 August, so no possibility of invoking a "get out" clause there!
UCU has already invoked the collective disputes procedure, and the university response will have to be declared by 25 August.