UCU: Single table bargaining

Motion

Motion text: The employers' proposal for the adoption of single table bargaining as a pre-condition for negotiations will divide the unions and weaken the UCU. This is particularly pertinent when government has instituted a public sector pay freeze. If this pay freeze is not broken, it is unlikely that we will get the third year of our pay deal. National negotiations are the most effective way of defending the pay and conditions of service of UCU members.
We therefore resolve to:
(a) Make the retention of lead bargaining rights for Grades 6 and above a non-negotiable part of any negotiations;
(b) Make the right to industrial action and the right to ballot for industrial action at any time of the year non-negotiable;
(c) Defend national pay scales and national negotiations, with a tactical flexibility around the issue of a 'Single Table', an implicit part of the Framework Agreement.
(d) Make the maintenance of the link between academic and academic related pay non-negotiable. Any shift in the spine that alters academic staff roles as a group must similarly alter academic related roles. The term academic related will include all current roles and roles arising in the future that were classed as Academic or Other-related prior to the implementation of the framework, even if the institution has ceased to use the term Academic-Related.