Staff at UK universities that do not participate in collective bargaining will again receive a higher pay rise this year, compared with those whose wages are decided nationally.

Despite no agreement being reached between the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (Ucea) and the campus trade unions, institutions have been told to implement?a final offer of a 1.4 per cent?rise for most staff in August pay packets, the lowest uplift since 2020.

The University and College Union (UCU), which had pushed for 7 per cent, has threatened strikes over the offer, pointing out that it is far below public sector pay increases, which have included 3.6 per cent for NHS workers and 4 per cent for teachers.

The figure is also below that being offered by the small handful of institutions that do not participate in the process.

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Imperial College London has agreed to give staff a 2 per cent pay rise this year, as has Nottingham Trent University, in the second part of a two-year pay deal.

Birmingham City University said it is issuing a 2.5 per cent pay uplift for its staff, effective from 1 August, as well as introducing a new pay grade structure.?

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The Royal College of Music has agreed a pay uplift of 3 per cent, while Queen¡¯s University Belfast negotiated a 4 per cent pay offer, as part of a??accepted last year, which will see pay increase 13 per cent over three years. Both of these uplifts, effective from August, are more than double that offered by Ucea.

All these institutions also at least matched the employers¡¯ association¡¯s more generous offer?of a rise of?at least 2.5 per cent?last year.

Steve Williams, a reader in employment relations at the University of Portsmouth, said that it showed a ¡°pronounced lack of bargaining power enjoyed by the UCU at national level, with very little prospect of the UCU nationally being able to take any meaningful action to secure an advance on Ucea¡¯s final offer ¨C especially given the widespread demoralisation evident among academic staff¡±.?

¡°News that some institutions, outside national bargaining arrangements, are awarding higher pay rises may well exacerbate this demoralisation and perhaps make it even more difficult for the UCU to mobilise support for action at the national level.¡±

Williams noted that for more sectors, collective bargaining ¡°vanished decades ago¡±, but said in higher education ¡°it continues to serve the interests of most employers, who can use the power derived from operating collectively to exercise control over labour costs, especially given the scope to?defer the pay award for up to 11 months¡±.

Despite the discrepancies, there was still support for collective bargaining ¨C even among those benefiting from higher wages.

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Chris Pritchard, the branch secretary for Nottingham Trent UCU, said that ¡°national pay bargaining is better for our sector¡± as it ¡°prevents sector fragmentation¡±.?The university was taken out of negotiations by its former vice-chancellor Edward Peck, who departed this summer to become the new chair of regulator?the Office for Students (OfS).

Universities tend to prefer national bargaining for the ¡°relative certainty¡± of national agreements to staff costs, pensions and competition, said Roger Seifert, emeritus professor of industrial relations at the University of Wolverhampton, while staff tend to favour the national pay?scales ¡°as it brings clarity to their careers, and UCU relies on it to remain relevant¡±.

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¡°UCU will lick their wounds, try to re-establish some unity at the national level, and enter into ¡®goodwill¡¯ negotiations to push up the offer,¡± he said, adding that universities that have agreed local offers may find that these are ¡°not sustainable¡± and ¡°may lead them into future pay problems¡±.

Gregor Gall, an industrial relations expert and visiting professor at the universities of Glasgow and Leeds, argued that institutions paying above the 1.4 per cent offer ¡°are displaying the pressure of operating in different types of academic labour markets¡±.?

A UCU spokesperson?said that ¡°bigger awards achieved outside national bargaining show that more and more universities realise Ucea¡¯s lowball offers are untenable and refuse to inflict such steep real term pay cuts on their staff¡±.

They called on the employer body to ¡°come back to the table with a realistic offer that properly rewards staff if it wants to avoid UK-wide disruption over the coming academic year¡±.

Roshan Israni, Ucea¡¯s deputy chief executive, said that the ¡°vast majority¡± of its member institutions ¡°actively opt to participate¡± in national negotiations.

The uplift offered was at the ¡°edge of affordability¡±, she added, and reflective of the financial pressures that are ¡°posing real challenges¡± to institutions.

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juliette.rowsell@timeshighereductaion.com