The 2010- 2011 New JNCHES Pay Negotiations

Most university and HEI staff are paid according to the nationally agreed pay spine between the five campus trade unions (EIS, GMB, UCU, UNISON & UNITE) and the HEIs (as represented by UCEA, the Universities and Colleges Employers Association).

The financial year for HEIs runs from 1 August to 31 July, and thus all pay awards are implemented on the 1 August every year.

Members may recall that the outcome of the 2009-2010 New JNCHES Pay Negotiation was a 0.5% pay uplift payable from the 1 August 2009 and the formation of three working parties to look at:

1.  Pay and Data Issues
2.  Equality Issues
3.  Sustainability Issues in the HE Sector including workforce planning.

Another outcome of the 2009-2010 pay round was the development of the ACAS Digest on Job Security.

The EIS was the last of the campus unions to conclude last year’s pay round, but the EIS-ULA Executive concluded on the basis that it was the best offer available and that a branch based consultation exercise showed that there was limited support for industrial action at the time.

The EIS did not accept that the above ACAS digest met our aspirations for an agreement on Job Security, and it was therefore a key component of the 2010-2011 joint Trade Union pay claim, which also included a claim for a pay increase of around 4%.

The 2010-2011 New JNCHES Pay Negotiations begun on March 29, 2010 in which the employers offered a 0.3% non-consolidated pay offer and sought to bury the Job Security aspect of the claim in the Sustainability Issues Working Party set up as a result of last year’s negotiations.

The EIS and the Trade Union side rejected the pay offer.

The Sustainability Issues Working Group has met twice this year, and is making limited headway and has not addressed Job Security issues. The Trade Unions therefore rejected the employers’ desire to place the Job Security issues in the ambit of the Sustainability Issues Working Group, but to keep it with the purview of the main New JNCHES negotiations.

The last New JNCHES Pay Negotiations was held on 28 May 2010, and the employer submitted a revised and improved offer of 0.4% consolidated pay uplift but refused to consider any Job Security agreement.

The EIS rejected this pay offer, on the grounds that it sought a "Job Security” agreement. Furthermore with the employers’ lack of willingness to even engage in discussions about Job Security the EIS and the UCU lodged a ‘formal dispute’ with the employers (UCEA). 

A formal dispute is a procedural device in which the EIS and UCU have registered their failure to agree with the Employers and enable a series of meetings to address the failure to agree.

A dispute meeting took place on 22 June 2010 and made no progress whatsoever. The next meeting is due on 9 July 2010.

The EIS-ULA Executive will meet again during the summer to review progress and decide what actions to take.  It may decide to take an indicative ballot of members to explore their feelings regarding the offer and what actions members would be willing to take if the 2010-2011 pay offer is not improved.

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The HE Campus trade unions organised a ‘Day of Action’ on Monday 21 June 2010. The EIS organised a stand on Princes Street, Edinburgh and offered the general public the opportunity of signing a national petition in support of Higher Education.

The item was well covered in the media.

News around Scotland’s HEIs

The EIS would like to pass on its thanks to Dan Smith who has ably represented members at GSA for a number of years and wishes him well in his retirement.

Edinburgh Napier University have begun consultations for proposed redundancies of over 100 staff.

Queen Margaret University have almost completed consultations for proposed redundancies of around 25 staff.

The Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Strathclyde (Jordanhill) and the West of Scotland have either remodelled or reduced staffing within their Education Departments in light of the Scottish Government’s cut in PGDE funding for trainee teachers, without compulsory redundancies.

The EIS worked with the UCU at Glasgow University and ran an indicative ballot for industrial action which gained a 93% support of industrial action from EIS members who voted.

The Edinburgh College of Art is in talks with the University of Edinburgh over a possible merger.

The UHI Millennium Institute application for university status is with the QAA (Quality Assurance Agency) for consideration, the next step is the Privy Council. The Institute looks likely to become a university sometime in 2011.

Both Robert Gordon and Edinburgh Napier Universities have signed (or are likely to imminently sign) separate agreements with Navitas to facilitate teaching facilities and articulation for foreign students onto second or third years of those universities’ courses.

Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) has long had a similar agreement and arrangement with INTO, and media reports suggest that GCU wish to open a teaching facility in London.

The EIS would like to remind any member wishing to enter into a compromise agreement with their employer to arrange legal advice through the EIS and not to use their own solicitors.