A BELOW INFLATION PAY RISE IS A PAY CUT… This year’s 1.5% pay offer is well below inflation – by any measure (RPI was 4.8% in August 2021). Since 2009 average pay in HE has dropped in real terms by 17.6% (RPI). AND THAT PAY CUT IS A CHOICE BY OUR EMPLOYERS… BUT NOT EVERYONE IS LOSING OUT! Staff costs are flat at Sheffield Hallam, but total income for the university is increasing and provisional accounts show a surplus (above budget) of £13 million for the year 2020-2021. The university continues to spend many millions on buildings, despite our students regularly telling us that ‘it is not the buildings that make this university’. The 10 members of the University Leadership Team shared £1.89 million in remuneration in 2020.
A FAILURE TO PROVIDE A FAIR DEAL TO CASUAL TEACHING STAFF… SHU relies on hundreds of Associate Lecturers on Zero Hour Contracts, on lower pro-rata pay and lacking many of the employment rights of permanent staff. Provisional year-end accounts show that spending on casual academic staff has increased by 71%, as a result of recruitment freezes and the non-renewal of contracts, even though the University made a healthy surplus. Surveys by Sheffield Hallam UCU branch show these workers overwhelmingly want to be on a more secure contract.
GAINS FROM YOUR LAST STRIKE ARE UNDER THREAT… In 2019-2020 Sheffield Hallam UCU took successful local action over high and increasing levels of workload, which are leading to long hours and unacceptable levels of stress. This was an important victory, but those gains risk being wiped out by additional duties imposed during the COVID pandemic, particularly now that temporary increases in workload allocation have been removed.
SLOW CHANGE ON EQUALITY PAY GAPS… While Sheffield Hallam has made some progress on the gender pay gap in the last 3 years, women, people with disabilities, and people of colour remain overrepresented in the lower pay brackets. Moreover, the pay gap between white males and women of colour is a shocking 31.7%.
Please stand up for fair conditions and fair pay in our sector.