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Employers describe union response to final offer as “serious disappointment”
University employers have described the University and College Union’s response to their latest pay offer as a “serious disappointment”, as the union pledged to “build a campaign for industrial action” after rejecting the “unsatisfactory” offer.
The offer, which was made public on 4 July, would have given staff an annual increase of between 2.5 per cent and 5.7 per cent, with the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (Ucea) describing it as a “realistic but fair” pay offer.
However, the UCU—which is one of several higher education unions involved in the negotiations— said, via a statement from its general secretary, that at a meeting of its higher education committee on 5 July “most branches let us know that they considered the offer unsatisfactory”.
“On Friday 5 July, HEC [UCU’s Higher Education Committee] voted to reject the current offer and trigger dispute-resolution meetings in order to improve upon the offer,” Jo Grady said.
“HEC also resolved to build a campaign for industrial action to win on all of the four fights—pay, workload, casualisation and equality.”
The statement added that it “may be possible to avoid triggering a formal trade dispute” if improvements to the offer were made.
Ucea said in a statement that the response was “a serious disappointment for our sector as it follows three months of detailed discussions”, adding that the deal on the table was “the final offer, and the best achievable through lengthy negotiation”.
Pressure on
The disagreement means that Ucea and the trade unions will now look to meet under the terms of the New Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff Agreement dispute-resolution procedure (known as New JNCHES), which was set up in 2013 to resolve such disputes.
Ucea said a possible delay “puts real pressure on implementing a 1 August pay increase”.
Chief executive Raj Jethwa described the pay deal as its “full and final offer”.
“Despite our higher education institutions’ ever increasing financial challenges, a realistic but fair pay offer was achieved, alongside progress in many of the other important areas identified by the trade unions,” he said.
“I fear the unions’ committees are failing to grasp the opportunity presented by Ucea’s comprehensive offer…They are also preventing meaningful joint progress on pay gaps, workload and contract types, and the review of the pay spine.
“I would remind the unions that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.”
Grady said: “The ball is now in the employers’ court to make further improvements. The resolution process should move quickly and we anticipate being in a position to update you further within weeks.”