A message from Roger

The UCU general secretary ballot result has now been declared and Sally Hunt has been elected. The union and our members face major and difficult challenges from employers and government in almost every aspect of our working lives. The turnout was just 13.9 per cent which in itself suggests the scale of the challenge the union faces. I wish Sally Hunt very well in meeting those challenges. To meet them successfully will require a clear strategic vision and a determined articulate response which members can have confidence in and ownership of. I will seek to play my part in ensuring that is the case through my continuing role as Head of Equality and Employment Rights Finally I would like to sincerely thank the hundreds of members who sent messages of support and campaigned during the election.

Tuesday, 9 January 2007

Monday 8th January 2007

“Vice Chancellors could band together to negotiate the academic pay levels best suited to their type of institution under an option being considered by employers”Times Higher January 5th 2007.

The front page lead article (from which this quote is taken) is about how the employers are seriously considering “consortia bargaining”.“Consortia bargaining” is a half way house to local bargaining. I think I would be disastrously divisive not just for the sector but for the union.

I’ve made my views on this crystal clear because anything less opens the door to a return to a binary pay system or even worse. If the richest universities (Russell Group) can pay one rate, the poorer relation pre-92 institutions another, the richer post 92 institutions another and the poorest institutions even less this will not put more money overall into the pockets of academic and academic related staff.

It will mean a small number of staff (especially senior staff) will get more, the majority of staff across the sector will fall further behind, and there will be even more inequality and discrimination because pay systems that have no national framework and transparency imposed upon them do just that. For example more and more pay will become linked to performance.It will mean the beginning of the end of the more powerful groups of staff helping the weaker ones.

If “consortia bargaining” were to be adopted in HE it would be even more disastrous in further education where it would open the door to those colleges which want fully fledged local bargaining.

No doubt some in the “157 Group” of further education colleges currently in favour with Ministers are watching the plans for consortia bargaining in higher education – and our response – very closely.Just because the national pay campaign in HE did not achieve its objectives is not a reason to throw out national bargaining altogether. We’d do better to have an honest assessment of why we didn’t achieve our campaign objectives so we can do better next time.

The Times Higher this week also carried an opinion piece from me on what the UCU GS election candidates think about higher education which you can read
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A trade unionist all his working life. An activist and a proud campaigner, Roger has consistently worked to defend human rights of workers. As the leader of the Equality and Employment Rights team in the newly formed UCU he continues to unite the movement around equality and keep employment rights at the top of the agenda.