Image: Napecuas [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
UCU slams discrepancy between rises for management and other staff
The University and College Union has claimed that the University of Chichester is offering most employees a smaller pay increase than has been afforded to senior staff and the vice-chancellor.
The UCU said that an email to all staff at the West Sussex institution explained that a “challenging financial situation” would make it unaffordable to increase staff pay by more than 1 per cent.
The institution’s latest accounts show that the salary of vice-chancellor Jane Longmore increased by more than 6 per cent to £185,000 in 2021-22, while the total remuneration of key management personnel went up by 8 per cent, the UCU said.
A spokesperson for the University of Chichester said the UCU claims were based on an “inaccurate analysis of the university”s annual financial statements”.
The spokesperson said that all University of Chichester staff saw pay rises in August 2022 worth between 3 per cent and 9 per cent and that the University had budgeted for the nationally agreed increase of between 5 per cent and 8 per cent in August 2023.
Staff at Chichester are among those at 145 universities currently undertaking action short of a strike—including marking boycotts—in a long-running dispute over pay and working conditions, which includes disagreement over the proposed pay increases.
UCU general secretary Jo Grady said it was “frankly sickening” that senior staff wages had increased at a faster rate than for rank-and-file employees.
“What is happening at Chichester is the thin end of the wedge and, across higher education, UCU members are taking industrial action to win the pay award[s] they deserve,” she said. “Vice-chancellors everywhere need to stop making excuses, and use the sector’s wealth to raise pay and end ongoing industrial action.”
Update 2/5 – This article was updated following a statement by the university