Yesterday was just another important day
By Raj Jethwa
13 November 2024
It was a pleasure to speak at the Wonkhe Festival of Higher Education yesterday, exploring ‘what the compact should be with higher education staff’ with experienced speakers from across our sector. I’m not a fan of words like compact and control when it comes to HE institutions and employees, but at a time of significant pressure and change, I accept that this question is even more acute.
Oh, I believe in yesterday…
So, yesterday was another important, challenging day in our sector. With probing questions from our Chair and the floor, the speakers at the Wonkhe festival tried to untangle the complexities facing institutions when it comes to decisions over employees and employment arrangements. Perhaps most pertinent, I will certainly reflect on how research is showing that newer employees in our sector value impact, culture and inclusion as increasingly important aspects of higher education working.
But yesterday was also an important day because of a joint meeting and relevant progress that doesn’t necessarily make the media spotlight; the annual autumn New JNCHES meeting. With so much good work for employers and unions to do jointly to promote and improve the experience of all those working in the sector, this is a key coming together of representatives from UCEA and the five HE trade unions: EIS, GMB, UCU, UNISON and Unite. These discussions are always vital and I am hopeful that we will be able to work together on the reform of the pay spine, and on delivering work relating to equality pay gaps, including those involving ethnicity, disability and gender; and to address workload concerns and work on the use of contract types. There was a clear common thread yesterday, at the New JNCHES meeting and at Wonkhe’s festival. I kept hearing that our sector has people who are working together - motivated and determined to meet our sector’s unprecedented challenges.
…but now it’s all about tomorrow
Let’s take a step back from yesterday and reflect on a psychological and emotional contract we all enter into in any working relationship. While terms, conditions and pay are important and, indeed, critical to the employment relationship, there are other sometimes motivators and rewards that get shaded. For many, it is the sense of purpose that our employment brings to us. And when it comes to this, higher education is right up there.
This is a sector with a clear sense of purpose: creating and sharing knowledge; helping individuals to realise their potential and working to improve outcomes in every area of life via cutting edge research. These are all worthy goals in higher education.
There is a debatable story about the NASA janitor helping to put an astronaut on the Moon, but I can’t think of a role in HE which doesn’t have a direct or indirect impact on the wider campus community.
Despite this, it feels as if the tendency in HE in recent years has slid to view the employment relationship as purely transactional. Certainly, the traditional New JNCHES (yes, I’m aware ‘New’ needs reconsidering!) pay round has frequently been characterised by a very transactional and positional approach to bargaining on both sides of the table. This is perhaps understandable. After all, if there is only so much money in the pot, dividing between pay and other HE expenditure appears to be a zero-sum game. But it is clear that we need to explore a wide range of options and working together to meet the objectives of both parties.
Working together to meet changing challenges
While the past year’s widespread acceptance of the financial challenges facing the sector are welcome, a principled bargaining approach is fundamental as we seek to progress priorities for both employers and trade unions in recent years.
A year ago, in ‘Breaking the cycle’, Professor George Boyne, UCEA’s Chair and I wrote that ‘significant changes to the sector’s funding model have created new pressures for institutions and placed increasing strain on industrial relations over the past decade’. So much has changed since then but unions and employers certainly need to as well.
There is a determination from UCEA to work together with our unions to deliver for employees and employers at a collective, national level.
Building on five pillars, this important work builds on the priorities set out in our Strategic Plan Facilitating transformational change, Enhancing the employee experience. UCEA’s EX Five-Pillar programme of work outlines health, safety and wellbeing; organisational change and transformation; intersectional pay gaps; employee voice; total reward and the employee value proposition. Each of these will have relevance to the joint work with our trade union partners and I know that UCEA colleagues look forward to working together constructively with all five sector unions to take this work forward.
13 November 2024
It was a pleasure to speak at the Wonkhe Festival of Higher Education yesterday, exploring ‘what the compact should be with higher education staff’ with experienced speakers from across our sector. I’m not a fan of words like compact and control when it comes to HE institutions and employees, but at a time of significant pressure and change, I accept that this question is even more acute.
Oh, I believe in yesterday…
So, yesterday was another important, challenging day in our sector. With probing questions from our Chair and the floor, the speakers at the Wonkhe festival tried to untangle the complexities facing institutions when it comes to decisions over employees and employment arrangements. Perhaps most pertinent, I will certainly reflect on how research is showing that newer employees in our sector value impact, culture and inclusion as increasingly important aspects of higher education working.
But yesterday was also an important day because of a joint meeting and relevant progress that doesn’t necessarily make the media spotlight; the annual autumn New JNCHES meeting. With so much good work for employers and unions to do jointly to promote and improve the experience of all those working in the sector, this is a key coming together of representatives from UCEA and the five HE trade unions: EIS, GMB, UCU, UNISON and Unite. These discussions are always vital and I am hopeful that we will be able to work together on the reform of the pay spine, and on delivering work relating to equality pay gaps, including those involving ethnicity, disability and gender; and to address workload concerns and work on the use of contract types. There was a clear common thread yesterday, at the New JNCHES meeting and at Wonkhe’s festival. I kept hearing that our sector has people who are working together - motivated and determined to meet our sector’s unprecedented challenges.
…but now it’s all about tomorrow
Let’s take a step back from yesterday and reflect on a psychological and emotional contract we all enter into in any working relationship. While terms, conditions and pay are important and, indeed, critical to the employment relationship, there are other sometimes motivators and rewards that get shaded. For many, it is the sense of purpose that our employment brings to us. And when it comes to this, higher education is right up there.
This is a sector with a clear sense of purpose: creating and sharing knowledge; helping individuals to realise their potential and working to improve outcomes in every area of life via cutting edge research. These are all worthy goals in higher education.
There is a debatable story about the NASA janitor helping to put an astronaut on the Moon, but I can’t think of a role in HE which doesn’t have a direct or indirect impact on the wider campus community.
Despite this, it feels as if the tendency in HE in recent years has slid to view the employment relationship as purely transactional. Certainly, the traditional New JNCHES (yes, I’m aware ‘New’ needs reconsidering!) pay round has frequently been characterised by a very transactional and positional approach to bargaining on both sides of the table. This is perhaps understandable. After all, if there is only so much money in the pot, dividing between pay and other HE expenditure appears to be a zero-sum game. But it is clear that we need to explore a wide range of options and working together to meet the objectives of both parties.
Working together to meet changing challenges
While the past year’s widespread acceptance of the financial challenges facing the sector are welcome, a principled bargaining approach is fundamental as we seek to progress priorities for both employers and trade unions in recent years.
A year ago, in ‘Breaking the cycle’, Professor George Boyne, UCEA’s Chair and I wrote that ‘significant changes to the sector’s funding model have created new pressures for institutions and placed increasing strain on industrial relations over the past decade’. So much has changed since then but unions and employers certainly need to as well.
There is a determination from UCEA to work together with our unions to deliver for employees and employers at a collective, national level.
Building on five pillars, this important work builds on the priorities set out in our Strategic Plan Facilitating transformational change, Enhancing the employee experience. UCEA’s EX Five-Pillar programme of work outlines health, safety and wellbeing; organisational change and transformation; intersectional pay gaps; employee voice; total reward and the employee value proposition. Each of these will have relevance to the joint work with our trade union partners and I know that UCEA colleagues look forward to working together constructively with all five sector unions to take this work forward.
