Vote! Pay + Equality Claim (UCU consultative ballot)

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(Text of email sent to all Leeds UCU members on 8 June 2018) You will have had (or should shortly receive) a very important email from UCU entitled “UCU Pay and equality consultation”. (If you have not received it, please click [here] for a replacement). This is a vital UCU internal consultative ballot (the stage before an ‘official’ ballot which, by law, would need to be conducted by post). As ever, we ask all members to vote by the 27 June deadline. Turnout matters and is a way of showing and building strength in itself. We are also asking members to observe the recommendations on which the national negotiators, the Higher Education Committee, and the annual Higher Education Sector Conference last week are united… Key Information (in brief):  Even conservative assessments (including [Michael Otsuka’s]) show declining real-terms pay, and that’s before you factor in casualisation, discrimination, the effect of workload inflation, etc. Therefore: Please vote to REJECT the pay offer in question 1 Please vote YES to taking sustained industrial action if that is needed in question 2 (See attached picture) The proportion of university expenditure spent on staff has fallen to just 54.7%, while reserves held by institutions have increased by 259% and capital expenditure by 34.9%. It’s about time money was … continue reading

Open meeting: casualisation and gender pay gap

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Wednesday 8 November, 1pm – 2pm Baines wing 1.13 As part of our work putting together a claim on the gender pay gap at the University of Leeds and tackling the casualisation of jobs at the University of Leeds we’d like to invite you and any other staff to a meeting on Wednesday to discuss these issues. Please pass this on to any colleagues who may have an interest in these issues (and who doesn’t have an interest in equal pay and permanent jobs?!). This meeting is open to non-members as well as members. Concerned about the gender pay gap? Fixed term? Hourly paid? Agency? Variable or Zero hours? All of the above? We want to hear about the experiences of staff at Leeds on these kinds of contracts. Permanent, salaried member of staff? This meeting is also for you to learn more about issues facing your colleagues & to share ideas. UCU is committed to equal pay and to fighting the abuses faced by staff on casualised contracts within further and higher education. We hope that all members will support these campaigns and stand with colleagues on casual contracts to put an end to such abuse. Casualisation + Gender … continue reading

Pay equality – it would be nice

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According to HESA data from 2012/13, it was established that • Female professors were paid an average 6.0% less than the average paid to male professors. • Among all academic staff, including professors, the gap is much more pronounced, at 12.6%, a difference of £6,042 per year. • 22.2% of professors are female, and only 5.2% of female academic staff are professors. By comparison, 15.2% of male academic staff are professors, proportionally three times the total of female professors. • According to ASHE averages 2011-14, the mean gender pay gap for Higher Education teaching professionals remains above 15% and the median gender pay gap is 11.2%. • Both the mean and median gender pay gap for Higher Education teaching professionals is significantly larger than for other teaching professionals. The median gender pay gap for further education and secondary teachers is 6.0% and 7.3% respectively, and the mean gender pay gap is 7.0% and 9.0% respectively. The calculations get worse for female BME staff, if extracted from the averages. The 2015 pay claim by five trade unions for the sector included the following ambitions: • To further develop some of the gender pay issues that emerged out of the work of … continue reading