The
recently formed Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff (JNCHES)
has agreed on an action plan for the sector.
JNCHES
was formed last year to combine 10 negotiating unions.
This week they agreed on:
● a new
guidance on equal pay audits and on-job evaluation/role analysis to help tackle
the issue of equal pay in the sector.
● principles
to underpin modernisation of the pay arrangements for HE staff through the
introduction of a new single pay spine and grading structures linked to it.
● discussions
on other issues of joint concern, particularly the reduction in the number of
staff on fixed-term and casual contracts; working hours for manual staff and
modernisation of the contract for lecturers in the post-92 universities.
● a
major conference on partnership working to be held on 22 May 2002.
The
independent chairwoman, Mary Stacey, said: "I am delighted with the
progress made. The pay spine principles are an important milestone and the
progress on the interim pay spine to be adopted from August 2002 is another
landmark which will help provide transparency and simplicity across the sector.
"JNCHES
has produced the first ever sector-wide approach to equal pay auditing. This
has been agreed with all the unions and will encompass all 300,000 staff
working in higher education. The detailed guidance includes a review strategy
to analyse pay in the context of sex, race and disability in particular. The
guidance has been developed in conjunction with the Equality Challenge Unit for
HE and the statutory bodies. The partnership developments are also extremely
exciting."
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