Our hard working members in Higher Education have the full backing of the union behind their action today and I urge members to give them all the support they can. For the third time in as many months, they have been forced to make the difficult decision to take strike action.
While wealthy university employers are sitting on billions of pounds of surplus money, many of our members are struggling to make ends meet.They want a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work – and they are worth an awful lot more than the pitiful 1% they’ve been offered.
For those on the bottom, a 1% pay increase would mean just £11.23 a month – not enough to cover the rise in the cost of even basic essentials like food and fuel.
And yet pay restraint hasn’t been a problem for Vice-Chancellors. Last year their already inflated salaries, which average £242,000, were increased by a further 8.1% – where is the justice in that? And in just one year, universities forked out £123m on agency staff. What a waste when less than 5% of that would give low paid workers a Living Wage.
We have made some progress and not all universities have chosen to condemn their workers to poverty wages, and this highlights more the inequity of pay across the sector. How can it be fair that the security guards protecting two neighbouring universities can be on entirely different rates of pay – one earning a living wage of £7.65 an hour, and the other earning the national minimum wage of £6.31.
Same job, same town, same hours, but different employers mean a £50 difference in pay each week. Talk about being on the wrong side of the fence.
Just a tiny fraction of the £2bn in cash reserves that university employers are sitting on, would be enough to pay the living wage to the 4,000 staff in hgher education on low wages. But after almost a year of negotiations, these cash-rich employers have walked away from the negotiating table. Not only have they turned their backs on the talks, but on the thousands of staff who work hard to support students on campus, run the libraries, take care of course administration, keep them safe and clean their university premises.
We hear reports from across the country of universities splashing out millions of pounds on new football stadiums, elaborate Christmas decorations and even Picasso paintings. Money that could and should be used to pay a living wage to their workers.
Today, we are sending a clear message to employers that a fifth consecutive below inflation pay award is not good enough. So, show your support for members in HE and join in any lunchtime rallies or marches in your area.
It is high time the employers came back to the table with a better offer.