unison vote to accept pay

Unison have now announced the result of their consultation ballot. The text of their note to members is a s follows

UNISON 6th October 2009
"Overwhelming vote to accept the 2009/10 pay offer
The pay consultation results for this year reveal that 81.5% of members voted in favour of accepting the offer.
Accompanying feedback suggested that whilst members saw the offer as very poor, they took into account recent pay awards and were mainly focussed on protection of their jobs. Nonetheless there appears to be a significant feeling that whilst members are prepared to put up with a low offer this year, that should the national employers seek to make a similar offer next year there would be a different reaction.
UNISON’s national Higher Education Service Group Executive (HESGE) met on the 2nd October to discuss the results of the consultation and decided that the clear result meant that the offer should be accepted and to inform the employers accordingly. The HESGE also noted that whilst UNISON members have indicated that they are ready to settle that other unions are still involved in their internal consultations and we will aim to work together and avoid potential divisions over the coming period.
The HESGE made it clear during the consultation that they will continue to press for a national intervention around job cuts and did not see the issue solely linked to the pay offer. As noted in HE/30/09 we continue to discuss a potential letter from the employers to their members that would outline our concerns.
Finally noting the feeling of members the HESGE has begun to plan a campaign for next years pay round. We will be seeking to work closely with the other unions under the “5 unions 1 demand Defend Higher Education” banner.
Unite negotiators have had two dispute level meetings with UCEA on the 20th August and 18th September. Aside from putting each others point of view nothing else of substance came out of the meetings except UCEA's claim that they have been given clear instructions from subscribing universities that they cannot move on either pay or an agreement on redundancy avoidance.
This means that as far as the disputes procedure is concerned Unite has exhausted all internal level discussions. There is an external level to ACAS.
UCEA Chief Executive Jocelyn Prudence wrote to me to formally offer talks at ACAS to try and resolve the disputed items. The matter was put to a special action committee formed from some members from the old T&G and Amicus national committees. That action committee meeting was held on the 24th September. The meeting agreed that the Unite negotiators should attend ACAS for further talks.
The meeting was held with ACAS facilitation on 5th October. Due to a number of absences from the Unite side some deputising was necessary. Tony Aldridge from University of Swansea, John Hannigan from Strathclyde, Sandra Robinson from University of Liverpool and myself attended on behalf of Unite. Michael McNeill from UCU attended as observer as did Jon Richards from Unison. The meeting was hosted by John Woods for ACAS and UCEA was represented by Chief Executive Jocelyn Prudence, Deputy Chief Executive Helen Fairfoul and Head of Employee Relations & Reward Damian Docherty.
The pay issues were set aside for the present to see if other areas could be progressed. Unite concentrated on trying to get UCEA to move on the redundancy avoidance agreement but because of the limitations on UCEA's remit it was clear there was little negotiating room. A possible avenue for potential progress could be through a New JNCHES working group on financial sustainability of HEIs, including looking at workforce planning, with partnership work proposed on increasing understanding of technical aspects of HEI finance. Discussions are continuing on this.
I will advise on any progression on these items in a later Circular.
Finally UCU are due to announce the results of its consultation process on 9th October. I will advise you about this when I hear what UCU is announcing to members in due course.
I know that behind the scenes everyone has been working hard ensuring our membership records are correct. Thank you for undertaking this task, it is appreciated.

Yours sincerely

Mike Robinson
National Officer
Higher Education