Ucea offers deal over marking boycott pay deductions

That’s not an offer!

Teachers get a 6.5% settlement and UCEA still think it's good enough to give us 5% ! What's going to happen to the savings the employers are going to make due to the forecasted reduction in employer's pension contributions (That UCU secured) or have these already been earmarked for VC's vanity projects ? Maybe if Raj had to worry how long the heating had been on in the winter he would be more in touch with the staff he wants to deny a living wage.

5% increase is nothing. Staff face long commutes to work as not everybody can afford to live next to the university they work in. This means most of the pay packet (about 90% for some) goes on travel and accommodation costs to get to work. What is left for the staff member's needs including that of their loved ones and dependents? Plus the workload is such that university staff cannot get time for a side hustle. It is not uncommon for staff to be working past midnight just to get the marking, teaching prep, research and a myriad of reports done. Sad.

If Raj Jethwa and UCEA really wanted to “reset industrial relations" they would not be so dismissive and belligerent about their employees concerns about the cost of living and offer what they really can afford. Queens University Belfast settled the dispute there by awarding staff 2% above UCEA's offer, and we're thrown out of UCEA. UCL has given staff 3% extra but avoided being thrown out by disguising it as increment jumps. Pre-92s are all saving on USS contributions and others are sitting on healthy and increasing surpluses. My institution, the University of Manchester, generated the largest operating surplus ever last year - 9.8% of total income, more than double the average of the last ten years; it could easily afford 7% or 8% like QUB and UCL but instead is a leading employer hardliner and refuses to even meet and talk with the campus union branches about pay.