Staff step up action in dispute over pay

1st February 2002, 12:00am

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Staff step up action in dispute over pay

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/staff-step-action-dispute-over-pay
As union tackles 64 colleges for ‘refusing to pay’ the national pay award. Stephen Hoare looks at the fight in Southampton

Lecturers and support staff are stepping up their industrial action at Southampton City College. This follows a one-day strike by NATFHE and public services union Unison which failed to force their employer to award a national pay rise of 3.7 per cent.

College principal Lindsey Noble insisted that her hardline stance was needed to help the college recover a deficit of almost pound;1 million.

NATFHE branch official David Wild, whose members are currently working to rule, said: “Other colleges which are in just as bad a financial position have decided to pay the award because they view staff as a valuable resource.”

The pay freeze is part of a package of measures, including management restructuring and natural wastage, aimed at helping the college break even in the next financial year. A slimmed-down management structure has been imposed and senior staff have had to apply for the new posts.

Seven have quit the college. Meanwhile, the exodus lower down has left vacancies unfilled which disgruntled staff are being forced to cover.

Ms Noble said: “We stopped making appointments from last March in line with redundancy procedures. Where possible we have been re-deploying staff.”

Her long-term aims include a programme of expansion and rebuilding that will see some of the worst buildings demolished and replaced by a modern teaching block. The college is in negotiations with a private property developer who wants to buy an adjoining annexe for social housing.

Within the action plan are opportunities for staff training and career development. “The corporation wants a financially secure college focused on maintaining vocational breadth, improving the reputation of the college and growth. It’s a five-year plan,” she said.

But NATFHE complains that morale has dropped since Ms Noble took up her post last March. Since the dispute first began to escalate last November the union’s membership has risen from 100 to 140 - more than half of all eligible staff.

NATFHE says it has support among students and the local community. “Because staff have left, the students’ timetables keep changing. The college has lost a lot of goodwill,” said Mr Wild.

Ms Noble said that her rescue package is the only way of reversing a steady decline in income. Southampton has been hit by government measures to bring all college spending towards a national average.

“The college has been receiving less funding each year and we’ve not managed to reduce our costs or make the savings the Government has required since incorporation,” she said.

The unions want her to ask the Learning and Skills Council for more money and have offered their support in the form of a joint representation. However, it is not in the LSC’s gift to make money available for pay settlements.

Union negotiators say Southampton is alone among south-coast colleges in refusing to pay the award. But NATFHE estimates there are 65 nationally.

“We commissioned a benchmark exercise and on one of the pay scales we found our average was pound;800 higher than the sector and pound;150 higher than south-coast colleges,” said Ms Noble. The study also found that pay was a bigger overhead at Southampton - 75 per cent of the budget compared with the sector average of 65 per cent.”

But the dispute is about much more than pay. NATFHE is also objecting to staff being recalled to college on August 16 for meetings and training, cutting three weeks off their customary summer break.

The management’s decision to offer fractional contracts to part-time lecturers working more than 18 hours a week was criticised because it was accompanied by a blanket cut in rates to pound;15 an hour.

Experienced staff at the top of the pay scale found they were much worse off. Mr Wild cites a lecturer who used to earn pound;24,000 a year ending up on pound;16,000.

Union officials complain that Ms Noble has refused to consult them on key issues. She said she had held two one-day staff conferences to explain the changes and a series of inconclusive meetings with union officials.

At the end of last term Ms Noble sent an open letter to staff offering a 3 per cent deal in August 2002 if financial targets were met. Another way forward could be to negotiate on hours. She has said she believes working hours are too long.

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