Lecturers’ union NATFHE responded angrily to the long-awaited ‘final’ pay offer from university employers today (Monday 8 May). The offer - only 3.5% a year for three years - falls far short of what lecturers have claimed (23% over three years) and has been firmly rejected by NATFHE’s negotiators - themselves university lecturers.
NATFHE pointed out that this offer is even less per year than the guaranteed funding increase of 5.8% which institutions in England will receive in the 2006/7 teaching and research grant. The union says the employers' latest offer utilises almost none of the new income from tuition fees for basic pay increases.
The three academic unions: NATFHE, AUT and EIS issued a joint statement:
'The academic trade unions agree that today's offer falls far short of the pay claim submitted on behalf of members. AUT, NATFHE and EIS call on the UCEA, having consulted with their subscribers, to return to negotiations urgently with an improved and credible offer.'
Roger Kline, NATFHE head of higher education, said:
‘This offer seriously misjudges the mood of university academic and academic related staff. It is way below the settlement that independent reports say our members merit. It does nothing to address the massive slippage in pay levels that the Prime Minister has acknowledged. It is half of what Vice Chancellors have awarded themselves over the last three years. It is almost the same as what the employers were prepared to offer last year before top up fees and other additional funding.
‘It is astonishing that after several weeks of refusing to meet with the unions the employers have made a so-called 'final' offer which is not a serious attempt to settle the pay dispute.
‘This offer means that the employers plan to use almost none of the additional income from fees on improving the pay of their staff. Our industrial action will continue until institutions recognise that our members will not accept another year of broken promises on pay. This is not a normal year: how this year’s pay dispute is settled will set the pattern for the next decade.’
NATFHE announced a number of further steps to secure a pay offer it could recommend to members:
- A warning to employers that staff who face pay deductions for not marking will not complete the work unless such deductions are reversed.
- A call on external examiners to consider refusing to mark, especially where there are concerns about local assessment quality.
- A call for an early joint national demonstration of academic staff, linked if possible to further industrial action, to highlight the scale of support for the claim.
Roger Kline added:
‘NATFHE has been urging the employers to come to the negotiating table. We now know the scale of the task we face and we believe members will rise to it. We are confident that alongside our AUT colleagues - and we hope our EIS colleagues - we will force the employers to make a more sensible offer which takes note not only of the justice of our members’ claim but of the fact that higher education has more funding this year than for many, many years.’
ENDS
Notes:
UCEA have offered:
August 2006: 3% or £515 whichever is greater.
February 2007: extra 1%
August 2007: 3%
February 2008: extra 1% or £200 whichever is greater.
August 2008: 3%
February 2009: 1%
Employers say this totals 12.61% but unions believe this would mean only 10.87% increase in actual money received.
Employers also want institutions in severe financial difficulties to be able to defer full payment by up to 11 months.
UCEA also made an alternative offer of 4% increase in 2006 and 4% increase in 2007, dependent on unions putting this offer to members for consultation and stopping industrial action.
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