STAFF will refuse to co-operate with job evaluation in colleges because they say it could be used to undermine their position on pay.

With the Association of Colleges saying it cannot go further than a 1.5 per cent pay offer this year, and 20 per cent of colleges having failed to pay last year’s increase in full, NATFHE says its members have nothing to gain from the process.

The conference passed a motion from East Midlands NATFHE criticising“job evaluation schemes which fragment nationally-agreed conditions and pay.”

Barry Lovejoy, the union’s national further education official, said non-co-operation is the result of the failure of attempts to get the AOC tocreate a national job evaluation scheme agreed with the union.

“It is difficult to see how job evaluation will improve the lot of lecturers when there aren’t any funds to improve their pay,” he said. “Having said that, while the AOC says the money isn’t there, we know of some colleges which intend to exceed the 1.5 per cent offer, although none will meet our claim.”

While still open to negotiation on job evaluation, NATFHE says any discussion would have to be on the understanding that a nationally-agreed scheme is properly-funded.