Unions say that universities, by digging in their heels over pay, are tainting graduates' qualifications and undermining academic values. Phil Baty reports
Union leaders have warned that there will be no end to the national pay dispute until all money docked locally from staff participating in the exams boycott is repaid.
In a backlash against moves by employers to withhold pay from staff who are refusing to set or mark exams, the Association of University Teachers unanimously approved a policy at its annual council last week instructing leaders to ensure that the refund of withheld salary is an integral part of a national settlement.
In a separate development, members of lecturers' union Natfhe have threatened an all-out continuous strike at Northumbria University, which will dock 100 per cent of pay of those participating in the action short of a strike.
About 600 union members will walk out on May 23 if pay is not restored.
Staff point out that 100 per cent of their pay is being docked while they are still undertaking teaching and research duties not covered by the boycott.
Both moves appear to make the prospect of an end to the dispute, which already looks certain to drag on through the crucial May-June exam period, more distant.
"Nationally, we see pay docking as an act of war," said Andy Pike, national official at Natfhe. "I've never seen people as angry about anything before, and where it is happening it is making the situation much, much worse."
He said that Natfhe and the AUT would not make a national settlement until all money had been restored. Big delays could be caused by institutions such as Northumbria and Birmingham University that have already removed money from accounts.
The Times Higher reported last week that at least 19 universities had indicated that they planned to dock pay, ranging from 10 per cent to 100 per cent. This week, Bournemouth University also indicated that it was considering a full lockout by docking 100 per cent of pay. The University of the Arts, London, said it would dock 100 per cent of pay on certain days.
At the AUT council in Scarborough last week, three late motions on pay docking were unanimously carried. A motion from the executive said:
"Council condemns the threatened and actual measures taken by employers to undermine the unions' industrial action. Council congratulates members on their refusal to be bullied and intimidated by threats of punitive salary deductions and lockouts."
The motion said council "deplores" the docking of pay at Birmingham. It said: "Council instructs executive to seek to ensure that any salary withheld from members is restored as part of any resolution... and as a condition for a return to normal working."
It agreed to "pursue the restoration of withheld pay by any available means".
The union did not rule out compulsory contributions to a fund for members who lost pay, and the motion called on the forthcoming University and College Union, to be established on June 1, to make plans to levy funds.
A spokesman for the Universities and Colleges Employers' Association said:
"Withholding proportions of pay is an inevitable consequence of extreme, unpleasant and damaging industrial action that specifically targets students. It cannot be morally or practically right for the union to refuse to fulfil a contract and then to expect full pay."