Category Archives: Pay Claims

Strike action is on at the University of Southampton

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UNIVERSITY AND COLLEGE UNION (UCU)

PRESS RELEASE

date: Monday 2 December 2013

for immediate release

Strike on at University of Southampton tomorrow

Staff at the University of Southampton will be on strike tomorrow (Tuesday 3 December) as members of the University and College Union (UCU) take action in a row over pay.

Staff will be on picket lines at University Road and Highfield Road in Southampton and will then make their way to a rally at 12.30pm at the Students Union Piazza, Highfield Campus. See map here – http://tinyurl.com/nlgvzsb

At the University of Southampton, staff are particularly angry that the Vice Chancellor, Professor Don Nutbeam, has seen his salary increase by £66,000 in the past four years*.

In the financial year that ended on 31 July 2012, the Vice-Chancellor’s salary was £277,000, of which £40,000 was a one-off non-pensionable performance payment. Lecturers have highlighted that as stand-alone payments, both Professor Nutbeam’s annual bonus and pension contribution are greater than the annual salary of many lecturers and academics working at the university. A member of the cleaning staff on Grade 1 would have to work nearly three years to earn the equivalent of Professor Nutbeam’s annual bonus or pension contribution.

Lectures will be cancelled across England as lecturers walk out. Following on from a pay offer of just 1% this year from the employer’s representatives Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA), staff are angry that as the cost of living has risen, lecturers’ pay has been slashed by more than 13% in real terms since 2009.   

The union’s negotiators have offered to clear their diaries in an effort to resolve the dispute before Tuesday’s strike and the union says it hopes strike action can be avoided. However, UCU added that lecturers were making it clear enough was enough when it came to keeping down their pay.

Eric Silverman, UCU President and Full Time Research Fellow at the University of Southampton, said: “Staff at the University of Southampton have seen their pay slashed in real terms since 2009. This year’s miserly pay offer, at a time of rising bills and increased pension contributions, was the straw that broke the camel’s back. And as we can see, those at the top have enjoyed more than generous pay increases.

“Staff love their jobs, but their goodwill cannot continue to be taken for granted. We hope the employers’ representatives will meet with us in an effort to resolve this dispute before Tuesday. Nobody wants to take strike action and lose a day’s pay, but lecturers need to take a stand about year on year real terms pay cuts.”

UCU members in colleges will join their colleagues and members of Unison, Unite and the EIS who are on strike in universities across the UK on strike on 3 December. Staff in universities are taking a second day of strike action over a ‘derisory’ 1% pay offer from their employers, which represents a 13% drop in real-terms pay for university staff over five years. More on that dispute here

Ends

*Professor Don Nutbeam was appointed vice-chancellor at the University of Southampton in 2008. He took up his post the following year in 2009.

PRESS RELEASE – 3 December set for second strike day at University of Southampton

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Union calls on Southampton University chief to donate strikers’ wages to poorest students and to use influence to help resolve nationwide pay row

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) at the University of Southampton will join a nationwide strike on Tuesday 3 December in a row over pay.

The national pay dispute between staff and universities is starting to become fractious at a local level. UCU members at the University of Southampton said today (Wednesday) that they are unhappy the institution is refusing to donate pay docked from striking staff into the student hardship fund, as other universities are doing.

The local union also said it is disappointed vice-chancellor Don Nutbeam is refusing to use his influence, as a board member with the employers’ representatives UCEA, to try and bring about a swift resolution to the dispute.

The three campus unions – UCU, Unison and Unite – took strike action on Thursday 31 October and have confirmed that their members will walk out again across the UK in three weeks’ time, and be joined by Scottish education union the EIS, unless the dispute over pay is resolved.

Members of the University and College have been working to contracts since Friday 1 November as part of the dispute. On Monday UCU wrote to UCEA and asked for dates for talks aimed at resolving the dispute.

Union members are angry at a 1% pay offer, which has seen their pay fall in real-terms by 13% since 2008. The squeeze on staff pay comes at a time when pay and benefits for university leaders increased, on average, by more than £5,000 in 2011-12, with the average pay and pensions package for vice-chancellors hitting almost £250,000. More on that here http://tinyurl.com/o43bss2

Eric Silverman, president of the UCU Southampton branch, said: “Staff at Southampton do not want to be taking strike action. They want to see a swift resolution to this dispute and no further disruption to students’ studies. We are disappointed that the university is not donating the money it saves by docking the pay of those who strike to the student hardship fund, as other universities are doing.

“The employers need to come back to the negotiating table with something less insulting than a 13% real-terms pay cut over the past five years. We would urge our vice-chancellor, Don Nutbeam, to use his considerable influence at a national level to help progress things along.”

The first day’s strike, on 31 October, left some campuses deserted. Around the country, lectures were cancelled, libraries shut and deliveries turned away. Services such as cleaning, catering and security were also affected.  

The cumulative operating surplus in the higher education sector is now over £1 billion and many higher education institutions have built up cash reserves. Overall staff costs in higher education, as a proportion of income, have fallen from 58% in 2001/02, to 55.5% in 2011/12.

 

The 2014 pay ballot – why you should vote YES YES

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As part of our campaign to make Southampton a better place to work and learn, the first step is to redress the erosion of our pay. That is why we urge you to vote YES YES in the UCU ballot.

If this were the offer from the University over the next five years how would you feel?

– Move down one increment in the pay scale each year
– Pay several hundred pounds more into your pension each year
– Do this under increased workloads
– And with fewer support staff available to you
– And no staff club in which to meet with your colleagues
– Leading to significantly increased stress

Sound good?

Of course not. But this is what has happened to us over the past five years. Our pay has been cut 13% in real terms. A grade 5 lecturer is paying £100 more per month into their pension. And the university shed over 200 support staff last year.

But the University also made a £15m surplus in the last financial year. It can afford to pay more, and employ more staff.

Enough is enough. It is time for us to defend education, for ourselves, and the future generation.

Help us to make Southampton a great place to work and learn. Vote YES YES in the UCU ballot.