“On average, in real terms, HE staff are 17% worse off in 2019 than they were in 2009.”

Do you appreciate being ‘rewarded’ for your hard work with a real term pay cut?

Coventry University (CU) continue to claim adherence to the collective bargaining agreements between the employers representative (UCEA) and your union (UCU) but this has only ever been to the extent it suits CU’s management to do so. One area of divergence that has fundamental repercussions on a daily basis is the ‘standard’ and ‘contribution’ zones of the pay spine. While this has always been an issue, in the last year without any consultation and without publishing this in the many communications we receive, they have made pay progression even harder with even more significant financial consequences for staff. 

History

• The JNCHES Framework Agreement creates an objective, if flawed, structure for pay progression through points within the scale that reflects advancement and experience.
•  CU introduced a “standard” zone and “contribution” zone. The standard zone corresponds to the default position of the JNCHES agreement – as long as performance is satisfactory, progression occurs annually through the pay points within a salary grade. 
• The contribution zone was meant to permit the rewarding of additional progression for excellent performance and was NOT to hold down pay. CU suggested that  many staff stuck at the top of a grade this system would actually allow members to achieve higher pay awards going forward. Note –  have now removed the top point of each grade making the situation detrimental to all staff.
• CU’s pay and reward system was allegedly designed to reward success and not to hold down pay. 
• Presently staff reaching or already within the contribution zone find it to be a brick wall that stops further pay progression. Even those rated to be ‘exceeding’ expectations by line managers, school and faculty management subsequently find the university centre overriding pay progression.
• As part of industrial action by Coventry UCU in late 2019/early 2020 there was a demand for transparency around the contribution zone and how it was operating in practice. Our own research found it almost impossible to find any staff member who had received a pay award in the contribution outside of senior management. Industrial action (early 2020) was paused on condition of the university agreeing to share this information but this was later withheld due to the start of the COVID pandemic. During the pandemic CU management  still found time to conduct multiple restructure and reorganisations affecting:
  • CURA
  • Enterprise and Innovation
  • Finance 
  • Academic Partnership Unit
  • CU Research
  • Principal Lecturers
  • Built and Natural Environment Centre
  • Institute for Future Transport and Cities 
  • Dance Undergrad and Graduate Courses closed
  • Procurement
  • IT Services
  • Estates
  • Centre for Global Engagement
  • Senior Administration Staff