May 2002

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Pay Negotiations 2002

The National Joint Forum (NJF) Staff Side submitted a single joint pay claim to the Association of Colleges (AoC) at the beginning of March. It was the first time that a single pay claim had been made and the ACM played a significant role in achieving this. The key elements of the claim are: -

  • For all staff, a substantial pay increase with a flat rate element which provides significant progress on achieving parity with relative comparable groups and addresses low pay in the sector.

  • A minimum starting salary of £11,000 for all support staff.

  • The removal of points 3 and 4 of the lecturers scale and progression for all lecturers to point 16.

  • Negotiations to agree national pay scales for implementation in all colleges, with career and pay progression equivalent to comparable groups including school teachers and local government staff.

  • A weighting allowance of £4,000 across all London and its fringes.

  • An AOC commitment to negotiate a national guidelines agreement on annual leave, and working hours (including teaching workloads), with a maximum 35 hour working week.

  • For staff transferring between colleges, the recognition of previous work in colleges as continuous service for all contractual entitlements including holiday, maternity and sickness leave.

  • A joint AOC/trades union campaign to reduce casual employment in the sector.

  • An NJF bid to government for resources to collect comprehensive staffing statistics.

A meeting of the NJF was held on 16th April. Peter Pendle, David Green and Paul Neilson represented the Association. The staff side joint secretaries formally presented the claim. AoC responded by making an offer of a 1.5% increase on salaries and allowances. All of the trades unions (ACM, together with ATL, GMB, NATFHE, T&G and UNISON) agreed to reject the offer. NATFHE indicated that they intended to declare disputes with all colleges and would proceed to ballot for industrial action to take place at the end of May. There was some discussion on whether some of the unions would withdraw support from the joint lobby of Parliament but this was finally rejected.

Obviously, the AoC offer is extremely disappointing.The  Association understands how difficult it will be for colleges