Effect of Inflation

One of the main factors your negotiators have been looking at is what will happen to inflation over the period 2009 to 2010. Below are some forecasts that show the different inflation rate calculations over the period. Some are currently negative amounts but they are due to rise significantly into next year with some forecasts at or above 3% by early 2010.


The 0.5% offer from the Employers is being made at the lowest point in the inflation dip. It would save thousands off a wage bill if inflation and fees rise as predicted but your pay is fixed at less than the expected 3% rate. So settling too low now could mean your pay would be hit harder by inflation very early next year.

Unite has argued that it might be better to accept an increase now but to ensure a further increase in pay if inflation rises early next year. The Employers have firmly rejected that idea.

In other areas pay offers have been higher. Local Authority workers received a minimum of 1% from April 2009. Further Education workers received an offer of 1.5% for 2009-2010. Only in HE is the offer an abysmal 0.5%.

In order to make their final offer look better the Employers have even tried to argue that most staff will be getting an additional 3% as an incremental increase. This hints at desperation when Employers argue that an incremental point is a pay increase. It is not. It is part compensation and recognition for having gained more experience in the role. As you will know not all staff will receive an incremental increase.

The Employers have even blamed the low pay offer on pension increases for academic staff or increases in the USS scheme. Why academic or USS pension increases affect your pay increase has not been adequately explained to us.



Where are we going from here?

The two Unite HE committees in higher education (T&G and Amicus) have now met. Both rejected the pay offer and deplored the absence of a properly negotiated national job security agreement. Both wished members to have full consultation and to have workplace meetings or local ballots to decide their views. There will be a national count as soon as all groups have had their meetings and all the local results are known.

If the overall majority Unite vote is to accept the offer your pay scales will be increased by 0.5% even if inflation goes beyond 3% in early 2010 as predicted by some commentators. There would be no national job security agreement.

Your negotiators and national committee are recommending you reject the final offer of 0.5%. The aim is to join other unions rejecting the offer and to try and find ways of putting pressure on the Employers as part of a concerted campaign to raise the issues.

The negotiators need your help to raise the stakes. Without your full support the issues will not go any further.

Your negotiators recognise that times are tough. We hope you accept that the Employers are trying to take advantage using difficult economic circumstances this year to save themselves millions of pounds now. If the Employers were really serious about assisting job losses they could have offered or explored a wage freeze in exchange for a no compulsory redundancy agreement. They did not. If the Employers were really serious about job losses they could have gone the extra mile and signed up to a national job security agreement. They refused to do that.

Your union needs your help to press the case. If you and others reject the offer by a majority, your negotiators will seek to reopen negotiations for both a national job security agreement and an improvement in the pay offer but with the force of your rejection to back us up.

As negotiators we know your interests are paramount. We hope you trust that your negotiators know when matters need to be pressed further. In our view this is the time.

If the Employers still refuse to negotiate then you may be asked to vote in order to take the matter a stage further and possibly support a vote for industrial action. Before that stage is reached you will be briefed again and by law you will have a secret postal ballot sent to your home address. If that point is reached an independent scrutineer will count the votes and issue the result.

Both Unite groups have nominated local union representatives currently working in higher education to act as a national disputes committee to decide whether to take the matter to the next stage. That group may decide whether to move to any formal action ballot if further negotiations break down but that point has not been reached and we all hope it can be avoided.

In case further action is required we need to have your latest full postal address. At your local meetings your local union representatives will explain the issues again and ask you to up date records to ensure we have your current postal address.

This is precautionary in case we need a full postal ballot but the hope is that sense will prevail and negotiations will result in a settlement that includes an improvement in the 0.5% offer and a national job security agreement.

These are difficult times but that is no reason your Employer should take advantage of workers or simply refuse to negotiate on many important aspects least of all pay and job security.

Please reject the offer and send a message to each University, School and College in Higher Education in the UK that you and your colleagues will not be pushed around.

Don’t settle for less. You are worth more.

Yours sincerely


Mike Robinson
National Officer
Education Sector