CAMPAIGN TO STOP PAY CUTS @ CHESTERFIELD COLLEGE

CAMPAIGN TO STOP PAY CUTS @ CHESTERFIELD COLLEGE

Dear colleagues ,

You will have received a letter this morning from the Principal outlining some proposals that were revealed to the joint unions at Chesterfield College at yesterday’s meeting of the Common Interest Group.

These new proposals mark some movement away from the original draconian measures that were rejected overwhelmingly by UCU members and are therefore to be welcomed.  

However, the College is still committed to cutting pay, including a 1% for all staff earning more than £18,000 and to a pay freeze for the academic year 2012/13. In response to this UCU’s negotiators, acting on the unequivocal mandate of our members in the recent ballot made it clear that we remain opposed to any pay cut in line with both the explicit views of our members and the national policy of the union.

UCU is a democratic organisation so no change to that position can occur without the endorsement of the branch. Accordingly, we will be convening a full union branch meeting shortly after the half term break to consider and discuss the college’s latest proposals. At that meeting it will be up to all our union members to determine the branch’s response to these new proposals and vote on the course of action they wish the branch to pursue. 

In his letter the Principal claims that he is “very heartened that two unions (representing over half of our staff) have recognised that this represented a fair and reasonable measure to reduce our pay costs significantly with a minimal effect upon staff.”  

There are however 5 recognised unions at Chesterfield College. Only two of these namely, AMiE representing managers, and UNISON representing some non teaching staff (many of whom are on salaries below the £18000 threshold) have given their support for the proposed 1% pay cut. We have yet to hear the views of UNITE representing non teaching staff and NASUWT representing lecturing staff. UCU, with over 220 lecturing staff in membership, represents the overwhelming majority of lecturing staff at the college and has made it clear that we are committed to defending nationally negotiated pay scales. A 1% pay cut represents a move away from those pay agreements and would be a dangerous precedent to set.

Once we have convened the branch meeting and established the views of our members we will return to talks with the management on this issue. We believe we have made substantial progress since the initial proposals were made and we remain hopeful that a negotiated solution to these issues can be found.

Also attached for your information is the Derbyshire Times report of Tuesday’s strike action at the college.