Lecturers in post-92 universities were angry today that their employers, UCEA, said they would not allow academic unions into next Tuesday's scheduled pay talks because of their continued operation of non-strike sanctions, although UCEA are holding pay talks with non-academic unions' representatives on that day - when those unions are on strike!
NATFHE - The University & College Lecturers' Union and its sister union AUT were due to meet UCEA on Tuesday 28 March. The employers say they will make a pay offer to the non-academic unions but will only make an offer to academic unions if they suspend their non-strike sanctions.
NATFHE called the action 'deeply hypocritical' and an attempt to drag out the dispute.
The pay talks were due to consider the NATFHE/AUT claim for a 23% pay increase, to be delivered over three years. Lecturers say this is affordable because major new funding enters higher education this year from top-up fees and other sources. Vice chancellors recently received a 25% average increase over three years taking their average salary to £145,000. Lecturers' pay has declined by 40% over the last 20 years.
Roger Kline, head of the universities department at NATFHE said:
'UCEA states it will not negotiate with NATFHE and AUT unless industrial action is suspended, yet this condition is not applied to the non-academic unions whose members will be involved in strike action on the day of the negotiations. This display of double standards clearly demonstrates that UCEA does not want to see an early resolution to the dispute. This is deeply hypocritical and will only lengthen and intensify the pay dispute.
'UCEA also claim that HE staff are benefiting from pay increases of between 3 5% as a result of the framework agreement. This is another distortion of the facts as only one in ten post-1992 institutions have actually implemented the new pay agreement and many will fail to implement by the deadline of 1st August this year. The new pay agreement provides only a modest 1.1% benefit to staff on assimilation to the new pay structure not the 5% claimed by UCEA.
'Both NATFHE and AUT have stated that there are no grounds for suspending the industrial action until such time as the employers make an acceptable pay offer and this remains our firm position. There is no indication in the UCEA letter that the employers intend to make a significant offer - indeed the letter's claim about the Framework suggest that the talks would not have been constructively based on an agreed perception of the current pay position. Unless the employers agree to meet us and make a pay offer the dispute can only escalate. '
Letter from Geoffrey Coupland (UCEA Chair) to Paul Mackney (22 March)
Reply from Roger Kline to Geoffrey Coupland (22 March)
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