Union calls for universities to use £3.4bn surplus to raise staff pay, or face strikes

theguardian.com:

Universities should use their £3.4bn surplus to give staff a pay rise to help offset the cost of living crisis – or face the prospect of strikes in the autumn, the University and College Union has warned.

Analysis of universities’ financial data by the trade union found universities had earmarked £4.6bn to spend on new buildings next year, an increase of more than a third on last year, despite giving some staff a below-inflation pay rise of 3%. The union is calling for an RPI (which stands at 12.3%) plus 2% pay rise. Its calculations estimated that a one-year surplus from Oxford and Cambridge universities, the UK’s wealthiest institutions, could fund a 7.9% pay rise for all university staff.

The UCU’s general secretary, Jo Grady, said: “The university sector is not only hoarding billions of pounds in cash, but also planning an eye-watering spending spree on shiny new vanity projects – all while holding down staff pay, cutting pensions and plunging thousands into hardship in a cost of living crisis. It is inconceivable and insulting.”

She argued the university sector generates its income through its staff’s work in teaching, research and administration and should “reassess its priorities”.

“Investment in staff is investment in students, and vice-chancellors need to wake up to that fact,” she said. The union said that 145 universities will be balloted over strike action on pensions, pay and working conditions in early September. As the ballots are nationally aggregated, if more than half of the universities are in favour when they close in early October, every institution will take strike action later in the autumn, which the union said would represent “an unprecedented level of disruption”.

Universities say they need to hold