Why you should vote YES/YES

• The proposed pay increase of 1% is well below the rate of inflation, and is the fourth year in succession that a below-inflation pay increase has been offered – effectively a pay cut – and this means that university staff have seen their pay drop by 13% in real terms since 2009. For someone on point 30 of the pay scale, this means a “cut” of £2,400 a year, and for someone on point 43 this jumps to £4,300. However, in the same period, the proportion of university staff whose annual pay is in excess of £100,000 has actually increased.
• Principals’ pay has increased since 2009 by a factor in excess of the rate of inflation. Public records show that the Principal of St Andrews University earns £217,000 annually.
• The trade union negotiators asked for additional topics to be included in the national negotiations as members had flagged up a number of concerns that they felt needed national agreement, and that pay on its own was not the only issue needing to be addressed.  UCEA negotiators refused to negotiate on anything other than this year’s  pay award which means that issues such as pegging pay increases to the RPI and discussing an element of “catch up” to address previous under-inflation awards,  the gender pay gap, a national disability leave agreement, a national agreement on the avoidance of redundancy, a workload agreement and further discussion on the issue of zero-hours contracts have had to be left to one side.  It is the employers who have made this dispute so narrowly focused by refusing to enter into discussions about these things – the things thatyou, our members, feel are important.
• The UCU ballot opens on 25 September and closes on 10 October.  The Higher Education Committee will meet on 11 October to discuss the results of the ballot and then advise branches over what to do next.
• UNISON and UNITE are also balloting for industrial action at the same time.  There will be discussions with them on co-ordination of action.