|
12
March 2003
College unions accept pay offer
All six FE college staff unions have voted to accept a revised pay
offer from college employers, ending a year-long dispute. NATFHE members voted by a 12:1 margin to accept the Association of Colleges' revised offer of a 3.5% pay rise, backdated to August 2002, with an additional 0.5% on all salaries effective from 1 August 2003, backdated to 1 April. The turnout was 41%.
14 February 2003
TPI and the revised pay offer: clarification
We have received a number of enquiries regarding the first element
of the revised pay offer from the AoC, which states that the 3.5%
increase from 1 August 2002 includes 'consolidated TPI/CPI payments
made in respect of the £32m allocation to the sector'.
What this means In September 2002 the government announced a further additional £32m
for TPI/CPI for colleges to be used for 'modernising pay'. Please
note that this is completely on top of TPI allocations already made
to colleges for the 2001/2 and 2002/3. It is worth about 1.1% and
some colleges may have paid this over to staff already.
This is the only element of TPI, which the offer refers to. So where
staff have received payments by their college using this money it
will count against the 3.5% (as long as it is fully consolidated and
backdated to August 2002).
Please note that any other TPI payments (consolidated or not) made
since April 2001 are not to be offset against the 3.5% ie local
arrangements on TPI payments are not affected.
It remains our policy that all TPI payments should be fully
consolidated but this is independent from the current offer. It is
an issue which will be addressed within the working party.
5 February 2003
Revised pay offer likely this week
FE union negotiators are continuing talks with college employers to
try to resolve the 2002 pay claim. NATFHE hopes that there will be a
revised offer by Friday 7 February.
If AoC make an offer based on proposals that came out of talks in
January, NATFHE's further education committee will recommend that
members accept it. All FE members will be balloted on the offer.
WHAT MAY BE ON OFFER
• a marked improvement on the 2.3 per cent increase currently on the
table, and an offer that has a catch-up element
• a working party with the Association of Colleges to negotiate a
modernised pay structure, with the aim of aligning FE pay with
schoolteachers' pay
• a substantial improvement to starting salaries for FE lecturers.
Barry Lovejoy, head of NATFHE's colleges department credits the
'magnificent' campaign of action for bringing the employers back to
the negotiating table. The working parties would provide a real
opportunity to make significant progress on parity with
schoolteachers by 2004, he said.
23 January 2003
Action suspended, negotiations to continue 5 February
The industrial action planned for 30 January 2003 has been called
off. Constructive discussions on this year's pay claim were held
between the AoC and all of the trade unions of the National Joint
Forum on 22 January 2003. Talks are scheduled to continue on 5
February.
Barry Lovejoy, head of NATFHE's Colleges department said:
'We remain optimistic that a settlement can be reached. All parties
are now reporting back to their respective Committees. We hope to be
in a position to settle the dispute and avoid further industrial
action in the next few weeks.'
|
