UK universities’ commitment to collectively negotiating pay and working conditions for staff appears to be coming under strain, with institutions rich and poor struggling to find a common way forward.
Some cash-strapped universities have signalled they are unable to pay staff the uplift of between 5 and 8 per cent instructed earlier this year by the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (Ucea).
At the same time, the University and College Union (UCU) is still pushing for higher wage rises and action on precarious contracts and pay gaps. The University of Cambridge and Queen's University Belfast have called for negotiations to restart to attempt to find an agreement that would end the current marking boycott.
Union members at the weekend’s UCU congress debated a motion that warned “fragmentation of national negotiations is a fundamental threat to the future of HE”.
