20 February 2004
University staff are set to go ahead with five days of strikes next week as the row over a new pay framework in the sector escalates.
Up to 47,000 members of the Association of University Teachers will halt teaching in each of the four home nations from February 23, with a separate, national walk-out set for the 25th.
The strikes will coincide with the National Union of Students' protests over the introduction of variable top-up fees – leaving large parts of the sector at a standstill.
The dispute follows last week's ballot in favour of strike action by AUT members unhappy at a new national pay framework that, the union claimed, would leave some staff up to £47,000 worse off over 21 years.
A union spokesman told Public Finance that the strike action was 'inevitable, following a decision in December by the Universities and Colleges Employers Association to halt serious discussions over the new pay settlement'.
AUT general secretary Sally Hunt added: 'We hope the employers will understand the seriousness of the situation and re-open negotiations now.'
Insiders, however, described the chances of avoiding strike action as 'very remote indeed'.
As well as implementing the national framework, employers have offered higher education staff a two-year deal worth an average of 7.7% and, they suggested, 'potentially more for many AUT members'.
But the union claimed that decreases to annual increments would leave lecturers £6,300 worse off over eight years, while researchers would lose £17,300 over nine years. However, UCEA said the framework 'unifies pay arrangements across the sector'.
It claimed the AUT was privy to the two-year discussions that led to the deal. More than half of the UK's 320,000 higher education staff have already accepted the pay deal and framework, with others set to back it shortly. Indeed, just one in three AUT members voted for strike action next week.
Joyce Prudence, the UCEA chief executive, attacked the union's approach. 'Striking and threatening to refuse to set and mark exams – meaning that thousands of students would not be able to graduate this year – is not the way to resolve this.'
Employers also claimed the AUT was effectively striking over a 'model' pay structure that could yet change.
A UCEA statement read: '[It] is not the only way forward and the AUT has every right to pursue a [local] variant with individual higher education institutions if it judges that would be preferable for its members.'
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