NFA Phase 2: Project Progress
September - December 2007
Phase 1 of the National Framework Agreement (NFA) completed assimilating Academic, Research and Professional & Support Staff to the pay and grading structure. Staff briefings held.
A new Framework Negotiation Group (FNG) (comprising College and UCU trade union representatives) was composed to set the terms of references and negotiate Phase 2 - the assimilation of Teaching & Scholarship staff (Sessional/Hourly paid) to the pay and grading structure. A joint statement was issued and staff briefing held.
January 2008 - August 2009
Open consultation meeting held for Teaching & Scholarship staff to discuss the Strategic Review being held across the College. Statement issued explaining how Phase 2 of the NFA implementation had been overtaken with the requirement for a College-wide Strategic Review and restructuring of the College from 17 Schools into five new larger schools including the mainstreaming of the Faculty of Lifelong Learning following the government's decision to withdraw funding from students studying for equivalent or lesser qualifications (ELQ) which was a decision that saw Birkbeck lose 38% of its teaching funding, which equates to about £7 million per annum. The statement informed staff that following the restructure the FNG group would undertake a data gathering exercise and begin consultations with them on the drafted role profiles/job descriptions and continue the negotiations with the aim of completing and reaching agreement as soon as possible.
September - December 2009
Staff moved into the new Schools structure.
Job descriptions/role profiles drafted and negotiated on.
Consultation phase held eliciting feedback from all Teaching & Scholarship staff. Full details here.
Other staff who work with, are involved in the allocation of work to or involved in the management of Teaching & Scholarship staff were also asked to provide feedback as a part of the consultation phase.
Feedback fed back into negotiations and adjustments made before job descriptions/role profiles finalised.
January - March 2010
Joint communication issued to Teaching & Scholarship staff explaining the agreement reached on how teaching hours would be allocated for the 2010-11 Academic Year. The joint communication also explained that a Variation in Hours Policy had been agreed for Teaching & Scholarship staff which allows these hours to vary up or down by up to a third.
The Policy has two main aims; firstly to allow for temporary fluctuations in student demand for teaching provision (modules, courses) and annual revision of provision and secondly to save jobs in the current uncertain financial environment. For instance, someone who finds that a module they were going to teach hasn't recruited well enough to run may lose up to a third of their teaching for that Academic Year but they can then hope to resume their normal base/core hours. This reduction of a person's hours by a third cannot be done repeatedly: i.e. you cannot lose a third of hours one year and then another third the following year. Thus the guaranteed minimum hours of those covered under the Variation in Hours policy are two thirds of a person's base hours. The policy will be reviewed in October 2012 to see if it is still necessary, and, if it is, to see if the downwards variation for which it provides can be reduced.
Where under portfolio review each Year provision has been identified as having been duplicated or a strategic decision has been made to run down or withdraw a programme of study or other substantive business reason for teaching & scholarship staff to potentially be at risk of redundancy the College will make every effort to militate against redundancies by exercising every viable option open to it but in the event that redundancies are necessary, the College has incorporated Teaching & Scholarship staff into the main College Redundancy Policy, which is an enhancement on statutory redundancy.
April - July 2010
The project team did a large data gathering exercise on each Hourly Paid staff members' employment history to ensure that the employment records held by the Schools were an accurate reflection of contracted work with the College. Each Teaching & Scholarship staff member was emailed individually with their employment history and asked to verify the record held.
Following on from this, the College confirmed to a number of current staff their qualification to open-ended (permanent) employment with the College under regulation 8 of the fixed term employees regulations 2002 (*usually by having taught for the College for two full terms each Year for four successive years). They all received letters outlining the fact that they were now open-ended members of Teaching & Scholarship staff and that they now had 'core hours' which the College would, during the planning cycle, look to find them each Year with recourse to the Variation in Hours Policy where this wasn't possible.
The finalised job descriptions/role profiles went through Hay evaluation (a process that assesses the size and complexity of each job) and were evaluated as Grades 6, 7, 8 and 9 on the pay-spine with Demonstrators & Associate Tutors at Grade 6, Associate Lecturer A at Grade 7 and Associate Lecturer B at Grade 8. Full breakdown on the evaluation can be found here.
September - December 2010
Negotiation group concentrate on harmonising Teaching & Scholarship staff terms and conditions to many of the current College Policies.
Matching and Matching Appeals Policies for Teaching & Scholarship staff developed, negotiated and agreed.
January - July 2011
Matching process undertaken in each of the Departments and Schools. Matching is based on the preponderance/majority of duties the College requires you to undertake in the performance of your role with us rather than a reflection of your abilities as an individual, the other duties you are capable of performing, remuneration or your role elsewhere. For example you could be an Academic in another institution developing programmes of study and managing staff however if that is not required of you at Birkbeck then you will have been matched to the position the Academics who best know your work in your Department felt accurately reflected your role with us as a Teaching & Scholarship member of staff.
September - December 2011
Matching letters sent to all Teaching & Scholarship staff.
Letters outlined the right of appeal and had links to the Matching Appeals procedure to be followed for those who wished to appeal against the role profile they had been matched to if they didn't believe it accurately reflected the preponderance of the work they undertake with Birkbeck.
Pay award agreed and implemented in December Payroll: 5% increase for Grade 7 and 8 staff on hourly rates of £25 - £38.21 per hour, an increase from £39.57 per hour to £40.12 per hour for those on that rate (to bring them in line with those previously on £38.21 per hour who received the 5% increase) and a flat amount of £75 gross for Grade 6 staff currently on rates under £38.21 per hour.
Focus groups held at School level comprising members of Academic and Teaching & Scholarship staff looking at the amount of time required to perform a range of tasks related to the preparation, delivery, administration and assessment of teaching. This was to assist in figuring out how to calculate actual working hours. Even when everyone has been matched to a grade, that won't indicate what they ought to be paid. Hourly paid staff are paid by the contact hour and the pay rates per contact hour generally assume additional work (to prepare teaching, mark assessments etc) with different things including in the multiplier depending on the subject area. We could not implement the full agreement without an agreement about how to calculate actual working hours. While the outcomes of the focus groups were not binding to either side, they were informative and the complex and varied results from each of the 5 Schools were fed back to the Framework Negotiation Group (comprising members of Senior Management and UCU) for discussion and negotiation.
January - March 2012
A number of matching appeals heard.
Pay modelling of scenarios which could facilitate harmonisation of pay.
In-depth negotiations on what should and should not be included in a Duties Related to Teaching Multiplier.
Series of settlement offers by Management and counter-offers by UCU.
April - July 2012
Further in-depth negotiations on what should and should not be included in a Duties Related to Teaching Multiplier and what should be paid plain or piece rate separately.
Further pay modelling of scenarios which could facilitate harmonisation of pay.
Final offer made by Management.
Agreement by UCU side of FNG to put the offer to their members.
Teaching & Scholarship staff who are members of UCU balloted on offer. Results of ballot are over 80% in favour of acceptance.
Local UCU branch members balloted on offer. Results of ballot also in favour of acceptance.
July 2012 - December 2012
Agreement going to UCU National office for ratification.
New contracts with new pay, terms and conditions drafted and systems development for issuing of contracts completed.
New contracts issued.
Ongoing negotiations between UCU and Management on outstanding items such as backdating, assimilation to the grade point, development of outstanding policies (PDR, CRP, Re-Grading).
January 2013 onwards
Agreement on backdating and assimilation to the grade reached.
Agreement ratified by UCU National and signed by both the College and UCU.
Joint statement on Agreement communicated to staff.
Backdating payments made to eligible staff in 27th February 2013 Payroll.
Open Briefing held 4th March 2013.
Implementation of Agreement under active monitoring by UCU and the College with review scheduled for September 2013.