universities - decision time over agreement
WORKERS, NOVEMBER 2003 ISSUE
Universities want to restructure pay for their 300,000 workers, with greater emphasis on local bargaining. Five of the seven unions involved are likely to accept the deal, but two - representing the lecturers - have yet to be convinced.
The employers, represented by Universities UK, want a single pay spine and a two-year deal to cover the period of assimilation. They claim that the agreement proposed in July will modernise pay arrangements and help cope with public sector spending cuts.
Unions representing non-teaching staff have mainly welcomed the deal, and will accept it. But lecturers will be balloted, some for rejection and strike action, others with a qualified recommendation in favour.
The Association of University Teachers, whose members mainly work in the old universities, opposes the agreement. It fears that the new system will undermine national pay rates, with pay determined by where people work rather than what they do.
The AUT also says that the assimilation terms - just under 7% over two years - will be barely above inflation. That's not enough to persuade them to agree to a new system. It does nothing to respond to their long-term claims to catch up with outside pay and to shorten scales. They are frustrated, too, by the long drawn-out negotiations.
Employers point to the greater amounts that lower-paid workers will get under the deal. They accuse the AUT of being the threat to national bargaining, which they say will break up if the deal is not accepted.
Natfhe, largely based in the former polytechnics, is the other union holding a ballot. Its members have doubts about the changes to their pay, and they share some of the AUT's concerns about restructuring.
Many other public sector workers have faced so-called pay modernisation since the government was re-elected. Few have found it worthwhile, although Natfhe members in further education colleges faced with similar proposals eventually accepted them.
Natfhe held a special delegates' meeting on 18 October, and decided to ballot with a recommendation to accept the new framework as the best deal that could be negotiated.
Acceptance is subject to reaching agreement with employers on five outstanding points. These include a safety net if inflation increases, and agreed guidance on job evaluation. The result will be known by early November. The employers have said that they believe they can work on Natfhe's issues, but claim they do not know what the union wants.