National Pay Claim – Ballot 2013

You will soon receive UCU pay ballot papers. In this ballot you are asked to respond to the latest pay settlement offer of just 1%.

Along with our national pay negotiation team the St Andrews UCU committee recommend you reject the employers’ 1% offer – if it were adopted this would be the 5th year in a row of below-inflation settlements, i.e. another real-terms pay-cut. The real value of our wages has already fallen by some 13%. In contrast, IDS (Independent Data Services) analysis shows median private sector pay increases running at 2.8%.

Moreover, the average pay rise of Russell Group Vice Chancellors in 2011-12 was more than 4% – or just over £10,000. At the same time, across the Higher Education sector, staff costs as a proportion of total expenditure have fallen from 58.5% in 2003/4 to 55.5% in 2011/12.

The HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England) report ‘Financial health of the higher education sector’ (March 2013) showed that passing these real-terms pay-cuts on to you has helped ensure stronger-than-projected financial performances at most institutions, and that future fee income will more than offset cuts to teaching and research grants.

Even the Scottish Government plans to increase funding to HE institutions.

UCU’s claim is for:

• A modest and affordable settlement that matches inflation and begins to address the four-year erosion of pay.

• A national agreement providing guidance to universities over workloads and working hours – to begin to rein in the long-hours culture in HE.

• Nationally agreed measures to avoid compulsory redundancy, put all hourly-paid staff on the national pay spine, and implement contracts that are fair for all our staff.

• National measures to address the gender pay gap – active intervention by employers is the only way to close that gap.

• An agreement on disability leave.

Whatever your views please ensure you vote – a high turnout is necessary to ensure the result is conclusive.

If you have not received your consultation papers from UCU by 10th July, please contact the St Andrews branch office on ucu@st-andrews.ac.uk and we will order a fresh set for you. Please also ensure that your personal details are correct, as inaccurate records may invalidate the ballot. You can check/update your membership record at www.members.ucu.org.uk  or contact Susan in the branch office and she will be happy to check/update on your behalf.