FIXED-TERM & HOURLY-PAID STAFF
There are huge numbers of hourly paid lecturers in both Further and Higher Education. Unions exist to fight employment abuse collectively, and hourly paid staff can fear to protest individually because of their dependence for the next contract on the work distributor. Members report being denied a pension, or having to pay the employer’s contribution, and postgraduate staff being expected to teach for free. Some hourly paid in both HE and FE have been told they are ‘not employees’. Many lecturers are required to go through agencies to get work; enabling colleges to say they are self-employed and not to recognise the UCU branch as representing them. There are many other issues – write in to UCU Left to contribute to the debate.
In HE, the Framework Agreement provided a key opportunity to include hourly paid members in the pay and grading structures. Local implementations have been signed off for post-92 universities only when the hourly paid were included. This was not the case for a long time in the pre-92s, though there were some good agreements by Local Associations, e.g. at Reading and Durham. A paper went to the Higher Education Committee in July 07, proposing a continuing differential approach. The outgoing AUT fixed-term and hourly paid staff committee replied, arguing for a unified approach to both hourly paid and fixed-term staff.
The HEC Committee adopted most of the reply. So, is the approach now equal? A recent statement says that new Framework Agreements will be ratified in all universities only when hourly paid are included, but there are better pay safeguards in the post-92s on transfer, and other differences in wording. Let’s ensure that this opportunity is fully grasped across the sector, and work for the inclusion of hourly paid in those institutions where the Agreement went through without them.
As UCU activists, we need to build on previous successes to find more of the hourly paid in our FE and HE institutions, increase membership, and vigorously use all means (collective action, negotiation, publicity of shameful employment practices, tribunal cases ---) to end the abuses that exist.
UCU Congress 2008 - HP & FT Staff - Motions Passed (see here)
UCU Left - Policy Discussion - HP & FT Conditions (details here)