Higher education pay row is finally settled

A long-running row over pay for university academic staff ended in April as members of the AUT union voted to accept the negotiated framework agreement.

This opened the way to a 3.44% pay rise backdated to 1 August 2003 and a 3% rise in August this year, along with variable increases based on assimilation (through a job evaluation process) onto a new national pay spine covering all higher education staff.

Attention will now focus on how the agreement and the new pay structures it provides for will be implemented locally.

The AUT had been reluctant to follow other unions in signing up to the settlement, but now feels it has the assurances it needs. It says the employers have agreed to address a series of concerns, including the threat of longer scales with smaller increments and consequential loss of career earnings. Other problems identified by the union had included an attempt to break the link between academic and "academic-related" staff, and the "inadequacy" of the pay proposals.

Talks hosted by the TUC general secretary resulted in a Memorandum of Understanding endorsed by the "old" university employers (representing universities formed before 1992), which paved the way for the settlement. Academic staff at the post-1992 "new" universities and colleges represented by NATFHE had previously accepted the framework agreement after improvements.