Universities angered by pay deal veto
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Your support makes all the difference.THE Government and universities were locked in bitter conflict last night over a rejected pay deal, with vice-chancellors raising the stakes by asking who manages the universities.
John Patten, Secretary of State for Education, has refused to accept a pay deal hammered out between the universities and their lecturers.
Although the Government, in recent times, has sometimes been dilatory in accepting a negotiated deal, it has always paid up: for the first time it is refusing to endorse a negotiated settlement between universities and academics. Moreover, the Government yesterday ruled out independent arbitration.
Stewart Sutherland, Vice-Chancellor of London University, said yesterday that it came down to a question of who manages the universities.
Lecturers' salaries had always been a matter for the universities to decide, he added. The Government gave the universities a block grant and it was up to them to negotiate salaries and conditions with staff. This had been sanctioned by Parliament.
'Who manages the universities? Successive Secretaries of State have properly affirmed that we do.
'We have reached a settlement at a level which we consider necessary to deliver the high-quality service which the public expects of us. We are quite prepared to put the case to arbitration. Why have they refused?'
Diana Warwick, general secretary of the Association of University Teachers, said: 'This settlement is less than that for schoolteachers and we have to ask if we are being made the fall guys for a new public sector pay policy.'
The vice-chancellors and the lecturers' union have asked for an urgent meeting with Mr Patten. The former will consider whether to seek a judicial review in the courts of the decision, on the grounds of unreasonableness.
The Government has rejected a deal betweeen the universities and its academic staff, agreed in May, of a 6 per cent increase from 1 May 1992, plus 1 per cent of the pay bill from 1 January 1993 for discretionary pay. This would enable universities to make merit rises and meet particular shortages.
Both sides refused yesterday a Government proposal to renegotiate the deal and accept a settlement of not more than 5 per cent, with 0.75 per cent of that total set aside for rewarding individual performance.
Nigel Forman, the Minister responsible for Higher and Further Education, said yesterday that the pay deal would add 5.75 per cent to costs this year and 7 per cent in a full year. 'Inflation is now running at under 4 per cent and most recent settlements in the private and public sectors are around that mark.'
He said the universities were not 'at present experiencing any general difficulty in recruiting and retaining the lecturers which they require. We do, however, recognise the recent growth in productivity in the universities.'
(Graph omitted)
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