Graduation is back on – Unions in new talks with universities over pay

The University and Colleges Union and Universities and Colleges Employers Association released a joint statement on 21st February that they will be entering new talks ahead of pay-negotiations for 2014-2015.

The UCU  began striking because of a 1% pay offer for 2013-2014. In real terms, staff salaries have fallen 13% since October 2009.

The new talks come after the UCU announced on the 17th February that its members would refuse to mark essays and exam scripts from the 28th April, which could have resulted in students being unable to graduate this year.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: “A marking boycott is the ultimate sanction, but an avoidable one if the employers would negotiate with us over pay.”

This has finally forced the UCEA to take action. The new talks will involve other trade unions involved in higher education: Unison, Unite, the GMB and the EIS – which form the New Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff (JNCHES), which negotiates pay with UCEA.

The joint statement released said:

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‘UCEA and UCU have agreed to investigate with the other parties to New JNCHES the prospect of arranging exploratory talks, involving all New JNCHES unions, prior to the first scheduled negotiating meeting of the 2014-15 pay negotiations. The purpose of the exploratory talks would be to seek an early positive dialogue on the key issues in the lead up to the 2014/15 pay round.’

Previous to this, there was a breakdown of talks between UCEA and unions, causing six national strikes, as the UCEA refusing to negotiate on pay and advising universities to impose its 1% final offer.

Rob Henthorn, President for Education and Employability at University of Aberdeen, thinks the reestablishment of communication between universities and the union is “great news”, but says it should have never reached this stage:

“What’s worrying is that it took so long for this step to happen – universities refused to listen to negotiations, they refused to listen when staff cut their overtime, and they refused to listen to strikes. It’s awful that it takes an ultimatum from staff before universities will negotiate, but hopefully universities are ready to support their staff tis time around.”

Negotiations for 2014-2015 pay round are due to start on the 26th March.