A massive thank you to everyone who voted in our pay ballot.
We achieved our highest ever turnout in a postal ballot with four out of five members who voted, voting in favour of taking strike action. This is a result of the 3% (plus more for grades 1 to 4) pay rise imposed this month, which, due to inflation being in double figures, represents a real-terms pay cut for everyone.
Whilst we understand that financial circumstances are difficult for nearly everyone, including the University of Brighton, we can’t accept the largest reduction in pay ever.
The branch committee will meet next week and decide on what action to take.
Whilst this is a local dispute, since this allows us to work within the anti-trade union laws, this is really a national pay dispute with the university employers’ organisation, UCEA. Our demand is for a significantly higher pay settlement for August 2022 across all universities.
As we’ve made clear all along, if the University of Brighton genuinely cannot afford more than 3%, we’d like to see:
- A discussion on what the University does and doesn’t spend its money on, and a rescheduled budget to be agreed.
- A linked up campaign to clearly demand proper funding for universities, by increasing government grants to offset the real-terms reduction in the £9,250 tuition fee.
More immediately though, we want our university to put pressure on UCEA to demand a pay increase that won’t mean increasing financial hardship for university employees.
We’ll communicate our plans as soon as we have them.