FE Unions Reject Pay Offer

The six Further Education unions representing 250,000 members in England have today (May 1) rejected the employers (Association of Colleges) pay offer of 2.5%. The six trade unions - ACM, ATL, GMB, UCU, UNISON, UNITE - submitted a catch-up pay claim for 6% or £1,500, whichever is the greater. This would establish a minimum wage level of £7.38 for workers in FE.

Joint Trade Union side Secretary and UNISON National Officer, Chris Fabby, said: “We reject this offer outright. 2.5% is just not enough. This year, our members have been struggling to cope with huge hikes in the cost of essentials like fuel, food and housing.

“The employers must get back around the negotiating table with a more realistic offer. We need a fairer deal for the low paid who can earn as little as £12,738 per year.

“Last year workers in FE got a below inflation pay deal. If this happens again, we run the risk of prompting a recruitment and retention crisis.”

The offer covers all FE staff including lecturers, managers, learning support staff, librarians, IT specialists, technicians, professional staff, administrative and business support staff, cleaners, canteen staff and estate management staff.

Joint Trade Union Side Secretary and UCU Head of Further Education, Barry Lovejoy, said: “A pay increase of 2.5% just won’t make up for years of below-inflation awards or remedy the 6% FE-school teacher pay gap. And it doesn’t address the widespread dissatisfaction with poor pay in the face of increasing workload pressures demonstrated by the independent survey carried out recently for UCU.

“The employers need to go back to the drawing board and come up with an offer that will enable FE to avert a potential staffing crisis that could well de-rail the government’s skills strategy.”

Wales Pay Claim Presented

Unions representing the majority of employees in further education colleges in Wales formally presented the 2008/9 pay claim to the employers’ organisation, fforwm, at a meeting of the Wales National Negotiating Committee on Wednesday. The claim, which had been approved by all of the FE unions in Wales, calls for a 6% pay increase and a minimum increase of £1,500, the removal of the bottom point on the management spine, an increase in holidays for managers, and for business support managers to be moved onto the management spine. The claim also seeks nationally agreed core conditions of service.

ACM General Secretary Peter Pendle, who chaired the staff side at the meeting, said “We believe that this is a very fair claim and were encouraged by the response of the employers at the meeting. We hope that we will be able to make much quicker progress this year so that the increase is paid to employees at the start of the academic year”. A response to the claim from fforwm is expected early in June.

Also represented at the meeting were ATL and UNISON. The UCU declined to attend as a result of the strike being held on the same day.

Protection For Women Undergoing IVF

The Eurpoean Court of Justice has confirmed that dismissal or unfavourable treatment of women undergoing IVF amounts to sex discrimination. In a case referred from Austria (Mayr v Backerei und Konditorei Gerhard Flockner OHG ECJ C-506/06, 26/2/08), the EJC said that the Pregnant Workers Directive only had effect from the moment of pregnancy, which in a case of IVF was when the fertilised ova was implanted.

However, the court felt it appropriate to conclude that the Equal Treatment Directive precludes the dismissal of a woman where it is established that the dismissal is based on the fact she had undergone IVF treatment.

Currently ACM is dealing with a case where a member undergoing treatment is facing questions about her commitment to her job, directly arising from her need to attend a fertility clinic. This recent ruling is therefore both welcome and timely.

Steve Sinnott

Following the sudden death at the weekend of NUT General Secretary Steve Sinnott, ACM has written to the union asking for our condolences to be passed to his wife Mary and their family, and also to the executive, members and staff of the NUT.

General Secretary Peter Pendle said, “We were all very sorry to hear the sad news about Steve Sinnott. Steve was an extremely well respected and hard working trade union leader. His commitment to the NUT was widely recognised, and he was a skilled and principled advocate for the teaching profession. I know he will be sadly missed by all who knew him.”

UCU strike ballot before pay talks start

Although pay negotiations have yet to start between the Association of Colleges (AoC) and the six FE unions in England, the UCU today began balloting members on possible industrial action. If the ballot supports industrial action, UCU’s FE members in England will be asked to begin this with a strike on Thursday 24 April, 2008.

The UCU move is unilateral. There has been no consultation with the other five unions, including ACM, who are party to the joint FE pay claim; and the fear now is that employers will refuse to negotiate until the action is lifted.

Meetings with the employers have been scheduled, and any subsequent pay increase would not take effect until August. The claim is for a 6% increase or £1500, whichever is greater.

UCU are seeking to co-ordinate their action with the National Union of Teachers. The NUT are also balloting for strike action on 24 April, in pursuit of their pay claim for school teachers.

Disabled FE Staff Face Discrimination

There has been a systemic failure to take disabled staff working in lifelong learning seriously, which has led to widespread institutional discrimination. That is the headline finding of the NIACE-led Commission for Disabled Staff in Lifelong Learning in its final report to be published today, Wednesday 5th March 2008.

The report – From Compliance to Culture Change – illustrates how many disabled staff members are reluctant to disclose impairments because they fear discrimination. 20 per cent of the adult population have a disability, however the disclosure rate among staff in lifelong learning is only 4 per cent.

The Commission was struck by the ‘fatalism’ of many disabled staff about promotion and career progression. There is a culture of low aspiration among disabled staff, exacerbated by a systematic failure to address their requirements and a lack of consistency in employment practice. Few organisations employ disabled people in senior or strategic positions. This leads to a waste of talent and untapped potential and a lack of role models throughout lifelong learning.

The Commission recognises how well institutions have responded to student needs which makes the treatment of staff all the more striking.

However the Commission did encounter evidence of good practice and of ‘reasonable adjustments’ in recruitment, induction, employment and promotion practices. Practical support for disabled staff would include funding ‘reasonable adjustments’ from a central budget and trained disability equality officers or staff with a responsibility for disability equality.

Above all, the Commission found a lack of consistency in the lifelong learning sector – in terms of recruitment, induction, employment and promotion of disabled staff – that amounts to institutional discrimination.

The first recommendation of the Commission is that a disability equality implementation group should be convened and serviced by Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK) to ensure disabled staff are treated as fairly as students in lifelong learning.

Leisha Fullick, from the Institute of Education and Chair of the Commission, said:

“There is a clear problem about the under-representation of disabled staff in lifelong learning. And we saw little evidence of organisations adopting a strategic approach to current and future disabled staff. At the very least this represents a huge loss of potential and is not a sound business approach. It is also an indication that, 10 years on, the legislation designed to reduce discrimination against disabled people in the workplace is not having a sufficient impact on employment practice in lifelong learning. This is in marked contrast to the very evident and positive changes that have taken place for learners and students in the sector over the same period.”

Peter Lavender, Deputy Director of NIACE, said:

“We’ve not done well by disabled staff in lifelong learning. We found a confused picture: reluctance to disclose disability, hesitant management support and little real disability equality. This report helps unpick the problem and suggests ways to change the picture to improve disability equality.”

ACM Members’ Excessive Working Hours

ACM members regularly work excessive hours in order to fulfill their management duties; yet colleges appear unmoved by what is clearly a widespread disregard of the Working Time Regulations. These are some of the findings, just published by ACM, taken from results of their survey of members’ working time.

The 2007 Survey, which was undertaken last term, found that two out of three ACM members are working in excess of the average 48 hour week limit set by the Working Time Regulations, but only 4% have signed a working time opt-out that allows them to do so. This suggests colleges are ignoring safe limits on working hours in order to ensure targets are met.

In addition, 90% of ACM members have so much work that they regularly take some home, while 81% describe the demands of their job as high. And as we have already reported on this blog, an alarming one in eight members has been diagnosed by a GP as suffering from work related stress in the 12 months before the survey was undertaken.

Indeed, exposure to factors that can cause stress is high. One in four members described their role at their college as not clearly defined, and a further quarter described their role as conflicting. Two thirds of members also said they had experienced substantial change in the last 12 months.

Sadly, the 2007 survey results are almost identical to those of the previous survey carried out in March 2004. The implication is that moves to improve work life balance in the UK have simply by-passed the Further Education sector.

ACM Head of Employment Relations David Green said, “These figures ought to be shocking, but sadly they come as no surprise. They do underline though, just how much pressure is placed upon college managers. Indeed, add in the fact that colleges restructure regularly and it is hardly surprising that stress is such a big problem.

“Unfortunately colleges are reluctant to tackle the problem. They have LSC targets to reach; and the effect on their staffs’ work life balance and even health simply isn’t a big enough priority.”

ACM has been pressing the Association of Colleges to negotiate national guidelines on reducing working time.

Time To Raise Level of Redundancy Pay

The TUC is today (Friday) calling on the Chancellor to increase the weekly limit on statutory redundancy pay from £330 to £500 in the forthcoming Budget as a major step towards restoring the real value of the limit when it was first introduced at £40 in 1965. Anyone who has worked for the same employer for more than two years is entitled to redundancy pay (which is paid by the Government if the employer goes bust).

It is calculated as half a week’s pay for each year of employment between the ages of 18 to 21; plus one week’s pay for each year of employment between 22 to 40; plus one and a half week’s pay for each year of employment between the age of 41 or over but under 65. No more than twenty years service can be counted.

But there is a statutory maximum limit to what counts as a week’s pay - anything earned in excess of this limit is not counted when working out redundancy pay. This is set annually and is currently £330 per week. Official figures show that more than half the working population earn more than this a week (53 per cent). Mean pay is £452 a week, so the current limit is just 73 per cent of average pay. Employers are free to offer more generous terms, and many do.

When redundancy pay was introduced for the first time in 1965 the limit was set at £40, more than twice the average wage (£19.60). If the limit had been uprated in line with prices it would now be a little over £500, and if increased in line with earnings it would now be in excess of £1,000.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “Now is the right time to start to restore the value of redundancy pay. When it was introduced the big majority of the workforce had all their wages counted when working out their redundancy pay, but now more than half the workforce would lose out.

“The Government pledged in its manifesto for the last election to boost redundancy and that pledge should be implemented. A one off rise to £500 and a link to earnings rather than prices in future is the minimum we need to see to start to restore some fairness.”

ACM and ATL Partnership Launched

At lunch time today (Valentine’s Day) ACM and the Association of Teachers & Lecturers (ATL) announced the launch of the Association of Managers in Education (AMiE), a joint venture between the two organisations.

The objective of AMiE, which will be run and managed by ACM, is to give ACM members access to ATL services and some 2000 ATL leadership and manager members access to the services of ACM. The launch was the culmination of many months of high-level negotiations between the two unions; and follows unanimous approval from both the ACM Council and ATL Executive Committee.

ACM is the leading trade union for those in leadership roles within further education. AMiE will enable it to continue growing and maintain its independence, while strengthening its influence on the national policy stage, something members identified as a priority in our recent member survey.

ACM members will automatically receive free membership of AMiE, together with a range of additional benefits including associate membership of ATL. It will enable ACM to freeze subscription rates and hopefully reduce them in the future.

This is not a merger but a partnership between ACM and ATL. In the future, if the partnership is a success, then full merger would be an option although this would only be undertaken following a full ballot of members.

ACM general secretary, Peter Pendle, said, “ACM and ATL share many common values and attitudes. This joint venture is really exciting for ACM members. I believe it will enable ACM to grow and maintain its identity, while strengthening its influence nationally.”

ATL general secretary, Dr Mary Bousted, said, “This is great news for ATL members. The joint venture will give ATL members in leadership roles, and those wanting to be promoted, specialist support and advice to help them in their daily roles. It will enhance the support we offer members at a time the union is growing rapidly.”

AMiE’s board will be made up of members of both unions, but AMiE will be run and managed by ACM. There will be little change at member level: ACM regional officers will continue to undertake personal representation for members. At local level AMiE branches and ATL branches will remain separate.

Commenting on the launch of AMiE, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “This is an imaginative new form of union co-operation and we wish both unions well in representing all their members through this new structure.”

AMiE will become active in the Autumn of 2008 and regular briefings will be provided to ACM members until then. Questions and comments can be sent to amie@acm.uk.com. Alternatively, please post a comment below.

One in Eight College Managers Suffers Stress

A massive one in eight ACM members has been diagnosed by a doctor as suffering from work related stress in the last year. These alarming figures come from ACM’s survey of working time and related issues, carried out towards the end of 2007.

The survey also found that nearly two thirds of members worked in excess of 48 hours per week, and that one in six works over 60 hours per week. But despite these excessive hours, 95% of members have never opted out of the Working Time Regulations which limits maximum hours to an average of 48 per week.

Not surprisingly, four out of five members said high demands were placed on them in terms of workload and targets.

But potential sources of work related stress aren’t just confined to the demands of the job. Two thirds of ACM members said they had experienced substantial change in the last year, and a third reported a low level of support from their line manager or in terms of resources. In addition, one in four members described the clarity of their role in the college as conflicting.

Commenting on the figures, ACM Head of Employment Relations said, “These survey results should ring alarm bells in our FE colleges. They show clearly that ACM members work in a very stressful environment; and that there is a real risk their jobs will make them sick unless colleges take preventative action.

“Sadly the culture in most colleges means that tackling stress is not seen as essential. If the going gets tough you are too often expected to struggle through or leave.”

ACM will be using the survey results to highlight the need for proper implementation of the HSE management standards and other measures to prevent stress. The findings will be reported to FESH, the sector’ safety and health forum, who have already begun work on preventing stress. ACM will also be using the survey results to back our calls for national negotiations on joint guidance to reduce working time in the sector.

In the meantime, ACM branches will be urged to ensure working time and stress is moved up the safety agenda. David Green added, “At the end of the day, positive change will only come about with consistent union pressure. If managers are worried about their health or the excessive hours they are working they should join us now and strengthen our voice on this important issue.”

Statutory Compensation Limits Change Today

As we reported on this blog last month, the new limit on a week’s pay for redundancy and other statutory calculations increases today from £310 to £330. Members and ACM negotiators should make sure that where statutory minimum payments are applied, colleges use the new figure. Contractual redundancy payments are not affected.

Wales Pay Claim

ACM will press for a 6% pay rise for college staff in 2008 or a flat rate of £1500, whichever is greater. The claim, which was agreed last week by ACM’s Wales Committee, is also seeking meaningful negotiations over a national agreement on training and development, and guidelines on work-life balance and working time. It also stresses that there should be no reduction in managers’ differentials.

Peter Pendle, ACM General Secretary said, “The Welsh Assembly Government, quite rightly, is pursuing a significant skills agenda; and it is further education colleges that are driving this forward. However, to succeed colleges need a well motivated and well paid workforce. With inflation currently running at around 4% a serious pay rise is needed.”

ACM will now be seeking the agreement of other staffside unions for a joint pay claim.