NFA Phase 2: Assimiliation of Teaching & Scholarship Staff

Q: What is the NFA and what does it mean for me?
A: In 1999, a report (the Bett report: Independent Review of Higher Education Terms and Conditions) was published which uncovered a number of anomalies in the pay, terms and conditions between different staff groups within Higher Education (HE).  In response to this, the Universities and Colleges Employers' Association (UCEA) and all trade unions recognised by the HE sector negotiated the National Framework Agreement for the Modernation of Pay Structures (NFA) with agreement reached in May 2004 with a view to reforming pay structures, grades and some terms and conditions across the sector. In order to accept the NFA, the AUT (the union for Academic and Academic Related staff) negotiated an additional document called The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Certain aspects of the NFA are national agreements, which all Higher Education Institutions (HEI's) have to implement and others are for local negotiation at Birkbeck with our recognised trade unions. One of the main provisions of the NFA was the introduction of a 51-point single pay spine, to which all staff have been assigned and there was also a requirement to introduce an analytical job evaluation scheme across the College.

Up until now Hourly paid teaching staff did not have a clear understanding of how their pay, terms and conditions were derived. Hourly rates were not based on any scale and staff did not have the opportunity for incremental progression, pay awards etc. Birkbeck is committed to equal pay (pro-rata) for work of equal value and gave a commitment to evaluating the roles undertaken and assimilating staff onto the grading and pay structure and harmonising pay, terms and conditions where possible. They set up a new Framework Negotiating Group (FNG) to set up terms of reference and negotiate on Phase 2: Harmonisation of Pay, Terms and Conditions for Hourly Paid Teaching Staff (Teaching & Scholarship staff) following on from the implementation of Phase 1 (which covered Academic, Research, Academic-Related, Clerical, Manual, Professional & Support staff).

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Q: Who is covered under the Scope of Phase 2?
A:  All Hourly Paid teaching staff in the College (Demonstrators, Teaching Assistants, Seminar Leaders, Teaching Fellows, Sessional Lecturers, Academic Advisors) whether employed on a fixed-term hourly or open-ended (permanent) hourly basis fall within the scope of this Agreement and are now designated Teaching & Scholarship staff. The new job titles are Demonstrator, Associate Tutor, Associate Lecturer A and Associate Lecturer B.

Guest Lecturers, Associate Lecturers-Professional & Support Staff, Programme Managers (JP and GMcI), Programme Director (IH) and Graduate Teaching Assistants do not fall within the scope of this Agreement. Guest Lecturers are excluded because the College has a very strict definition of a guest lecturer taken on guidance from HMRC and it is strictly applied therefore only those who are external specialists who do less than 3 sessions in 3 consecutive months are designated as guests.

Associate Lecturers-Professional & Support, Programme Managers (JP and GMcI), Programme Director (IH) and Graduate Teaching Assistants are excluded because they have already been assimilated to the grading structure during NFA Phase 1. There is an ongoing discussion about whether to move these groups from the Professional & Support Staff Category to the new Teaching & Scholarship Staff Group in the Research & Teaching Staff Category and it is something that will continue to be considered but it has not occurred yet and it will not occur one way or the other without consultation with the individuals concerned, and the unions as appropriate.

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Q: Where do Teaching & Scholarship staff fit in the College Job Family Structure?
A:  Teaching & Scholarship Staff are in a Staff Group called Teaching & Scholarship Staff within the Research & Teaching Staff Category as indicated in the following table:

While a part of Research & Teaching Staff Category, the posts are not ones treated or designated by the College as the post of 'Lecturer', 'Academic' or 'member of Academic Staff' as defined in the College's Statutes since original research is not a requirement of the roles. They are however very valued members of the College community.

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Q: What is covered within the job descriptions/role profiles?
A:  General expectations of the roles can be found on the role profiles although your job title and role profiles does not define or limit the scope of your employment with the College which might reasonably require you to perform other duties within the staff group from time to time.

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Q: Have the roles been evaluated?
A:  Yes, the role profiles went through Hay job evaluation and they have been evaluated as follows:

Each Teaching & Scholarship staff member has now been matched to one of these role profiles and received a letter outlining the role profile they have been matched to and the right of appeal they had against the matching if they believed the role profile didn't reflect the preponderance of their work.

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Q: What was the Matching Process?
A: The Matching process was a process by which the Assistant Dean for your Department in association with the Assistant School Manager and feedback from the Programme Director/Award Co-Ordinator/Academic who best knows your work matched you to one of the role profiles.

Matching is based on the preponderance/majority of the 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, your length of time with the College or your role elsewhere.

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Q: How does the Grading translate to my rate of pay?
A: The salary scales are available on the Birkbeck Finance Department website.

The starting salary for Grade 6 (Demonstrator & Associate Tutor) is at spine point 26: £26,779+£2,946 London Allowance, a total of £29,725; the starting salary for Grade 7 (Associate Lecturer A) is at spine point 31: £31,020+£2,946 London Allowance, a total of £33,966 and the starting salary for Grade 8 (Associate Lecturer B) is at spine point 37: £37,012+£2,946 London Allowance, a total of £39,958.

These translate into hourly rates as follows:

These totals highlighted are referred to as 'plain rate' or 'plain hourly rate'; the rate without a multiplier.

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Q: How is the teaching rate for contact hours derived?
A: In line with the national pay guidelines for hourly paid (JNCHES) and as negotiated with UCU, Associate Tutors', Associate Lecturer As' and Associate Lecturer Bs' hourly rates are enhanced by a 'Duties Related to Teaching Multiplier'. This is an additional factor applied in recognition of the additional work involved in preparation, administration and assessment of the teaching. UCU and the College have negotiated that the multiplier for Associate Tutors who don't undertake assessment on their occurrences is 2 (an hour for each contact hour) and the multiplier for Associate Tutors who do undertake assessment on their occurrences along with Associate Lecturer As and Associate Lecturer Bs is 2.5 (an hour and a 1/2 for each contact hour).

Thus the teaching rates are as follows:

It is recognised that these multipliers (weightings) given for preparation, teaching, administration and assessment etc are nominal and reflect the broad expectations of activity. The actual time devoted may vary at different times of the academic cycle but the weightings were negotiated to represent an expected workload over a period of time.

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Q: What is included in the Duties Related to Teaching Multiplier (Teaching Rate)?
A: The Duties Related to Teaching Multiplier takes into account time spent on a range of duties outlined in your role profile and as you may reasonably be called upon to undertake in connection with the occurrence you are to teach in particular preparation (class and materials, module outline, marketing blurb), contact time, scholarship, setting up and maintaining a module and reading lists on Moodle, module administration, employment related meetings, communications with students and pastoral care(#), setting and 1st marking assessments including exams, revisions, re-sits, late or resubmissions where necessary and providing appropriate feedback within given assessment deadlines (^), formal tutorials, project/dissertation/placement supervision when undertaken as requested by management in relation to the modules you teach on (~), optional staff development and anything else that directly relates to the preparation, delivery, administration and assessment of your own teaching.

Where some of this work falls outside the dates of delivery of your module but falls within the Duties Related to Teaching Multiplier is constitutes part of your contractual period as it is associated with and paid in association with the contact hours taught and the delivery of teaching on the module.

(^) The Duties Related to Teaching Multiplier includes assessment and exam marking for up to 28 students on each modular occurrence. Where you have a larger group than 28 students on your occurrence additional marking above that threshold will still form a constituent part of the contract but will be remunerated piece rate separately. (see piece rate below)

(#) Capped at 1 hour per occurrence per week to account for up to 28 students. Occurrences with 29-56 students paid for 1 extra hour plain rate; occurrences with 56+ students paid for 2 extra hours plain rate

(~) An indicative 15 minutes average per student per term within a 28 student group per occurrence is included in the Duties Related to Teaching Multiplier and will not be remunerated separately. (i.e. 1 formal tutorial and/or 1 dissertation supervision and/or 1 project supervision sessions of 15 mins per student per term is included in the multiplier) Any time spent over that requires School Manager pre-approval before it will be paid at plain rate. 

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Q: What about additional duties I undertake which are not included in the Duties Related to Teaching Multiplier like open evenings?
A: Additional activities which are not included in the Duties Related to Teaching Multiplier are as follows:

These additional duties will be paid at the piece rate or plain hourly rate of your grade.

PLAIN RATES:

(") Subject area meetings capped at £40 per meeting

(*) If required staff development is a professional development course the College is paying the course fee for e.g. Postgraduate Certificate in Learning & Teaching or Fundamentals of Teaching then no additional payment for attendance will be made. Also if the College requires you to attend one training session e.g. 2hrs Moodle session and you then opt to attend a 2nd session then you will be paid plain rate separately for attending the 1st required one but not for the optional 2nd attendance which was your choice to attend.

MARKING PIECE RATES MATRIX (&):

Note: Oversight by the Award and Module Co-Ordinator/Programme Director will as always determine assessment patterns for the modules.

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Q: I used to receive a higher rate/used to receive other allowances and think I will be worse off as a result of this Agreement. What about me?
A: The purpose of the Agreement as outlined above is to ensure equal pay (pro-rata) for work of equal value. The College is committed to facilitating the appropriate remuneration of its staff and therefore both current and new jobs are subject to Hay job evaluation. There may however be exceptional circumstances, explicitly due to market forces, where the Hay evaluated grade for the job results in an inability to successfully recruit or retain staff in a particular job. In such exceptional circumstances, it may be appropriate for the manager of a post(s) to make an application for an Attraction/Retention/Market Supplement Allowance. Support will be available from HR, as appropriate. All applications for such supplements will be considered within the context of Equal Pay legislation and the principles of equal pay for work of equal value.

There are some areas of the College particularly in Law and Business where market arguments have been made traditionally in the past and may be again. Any current (i.e. without a break in service and not new) Teaching & Scholarship staff member who had a higher teaching rate in previous years will benefit from pay protection (will have a rate over-ride seen at Section 5 of contract which over-rides Section 6 if fixed term or automatic if open-ended) for a maximum of 2 years (end of August 2014) to allow Departments/Schools where they feel it is appropriate to make a market supplement case and follow the appropriate procedure. Pay protection will cease either when a market supplement case has been approved or after 2 years (end of August 2014) whichever is sooner.

Pay protection will also apply for up to 2 years (up to end Aug 2014) to anyone else who is financially disadvantaged as a result of this Agreement as the College does not want anyone to suffer detriment as a result of it. Determination of financial disadvantage will be on the basis of 2011.12 hours notwithstanding variation in hours (i.e. if you have had reduced pay as a result of reduced hours due to a temporary reduction in hours that will not be covered under a pay protection arrangement. Similarly if you had a temporary increase in hours in 2011.12 but returned to base hours or lower in 2012.13 then the reduction in pay was also due to the reduction in hours not as a result of this Agreement and therefore it will not be covered under a pay protection arrangement.

Where benefit in kind travel expenses to and from work were a custom and practice claimed payment on former FLL Certificate programmes, the individuals who continue to teach on those Certificate programmes and used to submit claims which did receive payment may continue to submit claims (subject to the usual requirements on original receipts and the 3 month time-limit on claims) for the Certificate programmes relating up to the end of March 2013. These allowances will be withdrawn thereafter and will not be payable.  Claims relating to the period January 2013 to March 2013 must be submitted by 1st July 2013 and no claims received after that point will be payable. (3 month time-limit on claims). No travel expenses to and from work were ever claimable or payable on any other programmes so no claims for travel relating to other programmes will be considered.

All of this is separate from the travel expenses from work to a fieldtrip for example which will remain claimable under the same conditions as other staff groups i.e. upon completion of a staff expenses form with original receipts supplied. The College’s financial regulations supersede any other custom and practice expense payment.

Any pay protection differential due will be made as a gross lump payment via Payroll at the end of the financial Year. If pay protection is still required in 2013.14 the same process will apply and the payment will be made as a gross lump payment via Payroll at the end of the financial Year 13.14.

You should bear in mind that from now on provided continuity of service is maintained you will benefit from incremental progression up the pay scale to the contribution threshold. You will also benefit irrespective from any pay awards and increases in London Allowance agreed through collective agreement and have the opportunity to apply for Contribution Related Pay once the Teaching & Scholarship staff policy has been agreed.

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Q: Which College Policies apply to my position?
A: Following Harmonisation the College policies which apply to 'All Employees' and 'Teaching & Scholarship staff' are applicable to your employment. They can be found at: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/hr/policies_services/policies_az. The College is currently checking through all policies to review applicability.

The College is continuing to develop additional Policies such as Re-Grading, Contribution-Related Pay (CRP), Probation and Progress & Development Review (PDR) for Teaching & Scholarship Staff in collective consultation with UCU and these will be communicated to you as and when they are agreed.

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Q: I've heard that some other HEIs use fractional contracts rather than hourly rates. Is this something the College is considering?
A: The College is giving consideration to translating these into fractional contracts however a large IT project on the College's HR/Payroll system is required before this could be undertaken. Work has begun on this project but it may take some time to complete.

In the meantime your FTE can be calculated at any point for you.

The hours of work for a fractional contract for a Teaching & Scholarship staff are calculated by looking at two factors: contact teaching hours and 'plain time hours'. The College recognises that for each hour of contact teaching time a factor/multiplier needs to be added to take into account the other Duties Related to Teaching (preparation, scholarship, administration, assessment etc) depending on the grade and duties of the post. UCU and the College have negotiated that the multiplier for Associate Tutors who don't undertake assessment on their occurrences is 2 (an hour for each contact hour) and the multiplier for Associate Tutors who do undertake assessment on their occurrences along with Associate Lecturer As and Associate Lecturer Bs is 2.5 (an hour and a 1/2 for each contact hour)

Example 1:

Mortimer Mayhew works 110 contact hours per annum as an Associate Tutor Grade 6 who does not undertake assessment marking on his modular occurrences. His multiplied hours are therefore 220 (110 contact hours*multiplier of 2)

These are then divided by the total hours of work of a full-time equivalent less annual leave which is 1575 hours. This gives the FTE or ‘fraction’.

Therefore Mortimer's FTE is 0.14 FTE (220/1575)

Example 2:

Mindy Masterson works 240 contact hours per annum as an Associate Lecturer A Grade 7. Her multiplied hours are therefore 600 (240 contact hours*multiplier of 2.5)

Mindy also attends 6 hours of subject area meetings per annum, 4 hours of open evenings and 35 hours of student interviewing for admissions. These are referred to as ‘plain time hours’

The multiplied hours and the plain time hours are added together to get the total hours of work and then the FTE is calculated.

Mindy's total hours of work are 645 (240*2.5+6+4+35)

Therefore Mindy's FTE is 0.41 FTE (645/1575)

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Q: I've heard people mention 'Portfolio Review' but I've no idea what it is. Please explain.
A:  Each Year during Autumn Term as part of the Planning Cycle Departments and Schools are asked to review the portfolio of programmes they offer considering pedagogic reasons for running them, their strategic 'fit' alongside the other offerings, fees charged, progression routes to higher level awards, widening participation, sustainability etc. This is referred to as Portfolio Review. Departmental recommendations go to the School Executive for review and consideration. Some recommendations will be rejected, some sent back for revision and others will be endorsed by the School Executive and go forward as a provisional School plan to the Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) in the Spring Term for review and consideration. Nothing is confirmed at this stage. SPC will similarly reject some proposals, request additional information or revision of some plans and endorse others for implementation. These plans will usually have a lead time of at least a Year whether they relate to introducing a programme, suspending one or removing one from the School portfolio. This will depend on a variety of circumstances such as likely number of students which can be recruited within timeframe or number of students who need to complete a programme and the type of programme involved. Where these plans have implications for the staff involved in delivering them a business case will usually be written up and consultations with the staff will begin on the implications for them.

Provisional allocation of staff to modules by the Assistant Dean/Award Co-Ordinator/Programme Director in association with the Assistant School Manager begins in late Spring Term each Year with allocations firmed up after teaching space has been booked in June/July and contracts are issued thereafter, usually in mid to late June.

If you are interested in finding out what is going on at Committee level then you have access to the Committees webpages with their agendas, minutes and documents.

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Q: What about backdating and assimilation?
A: The College and UCU continued to discuss the issues of back-dating and assimilation to the grade over Autumn term 2012. Initially there was no backdating and everyone was assimilated to the 1st point of their grade on the scale to enable us to start from an even base since no-one was on any scale previously. The negotiations were complex and there were a number of issues surrounding it partly to do with the feasibility to achieve and implement for nearly 900 staff within current resource. We are happy to report that agreement was reached and the details are as follows:

Backdating

Management and UCU have agreed to the following on backdating:

• A once-off lump sum of £1,000 gross to currently employed Associate Lecturer A's and B's* to be paid in the February 2013 pay-run
• A once-off lump sum of £500 gross to currently employed Associate Tutors* and Demonstrators* to be paid in the February 2013 pay-run.

*currently employed as at 27th February 2013 and excluding those who only started with the College in the 2012/13 Academic Year.

Assimilation to the Grade

FNG agreed that the effective date of the Agreement and Teaching & Scholarship staff moving to the pay and grading structure at Birkbeck will be 1st September 2012 inclusive of any pre-sessional work for the 2012-13 Academic Year. Currently employed* Teaching & Scholarship staff with 4 years or more of continuous service in September 2012 will be assimilated to the 4th point of the grade to which they have been matched. All other Teaching & Scholarship staff will be assimilated to the 1st point of the grade to which they have been matched with deferred assimilation to their respective point on the scale based on length of continuous service from 1st October 2013 (see table)

Assimilation to the 4th point of the grade for currently employed* Teaching & Scholarship staff with 4 years or more of continuous service will be undertaken in the 27th February 2013 pay-run with back-dating to 1st September 2012.

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Q: Does this alter rates?
A: Well since the 1st September 2012 a 1% pay award has been agreed for all staff which Teaching & Scholarship staff now also benefit from so for example the following happened:

These adjustments went through in the 27th February 2013 pay-run.

Furthermore those with over 4 years or more continuous service will have seen an additional increase in their rate due to the assimilation as mentioned above.

The current scale is therefore now as below. (those highlighted in green are individuals' spine points depending on grade and length of continuous service.

Teaching Rate per hour: Applicable to teaching contact hours, this rate is a comprehensive rate with a multiplier of 2.5 which takes into account a range of duties related to teaching, see Duties Related to Teaching Multiplier above)

Plain Rate per hour: Applicable to additional duties

The Marking Matrix and all other factors remain as above.

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Q: Is everything completed yet or is there more to do?
A: The College is continuing to develop Re-Grading, Contribution-Related Pay (CRP), Probation and Progress & Development Review (PDR) policies for Teaching & Scholarship staff in consultation with UCU and these will be communicated to you as and when they are agreed.

Both the College and UCU are actively monitoring the implementation of the Agreement and gathering feedback with a review period scheduled for September 2013.

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Q: Where can I find out more general information on working as a member of Teaching & Scholarship staff in the College?
A: We have a dedicated website for Teaching & Scholarship staff http://staff.bbk.ac.uk/sessopma;_09/info which we would encourage you to read and use as a reference guide as it provides what we hope is interesting, useful and practical information for your time with us. It provides links to staff timetables, practical information on Contracts, Payroll, IT, Staff ID and Library Cards, Policies and Guidelines, the Library, Available Facilities (Photocopying, Printing, Computers, Estates and Facilities space, Moodle, the various Training and Professional Development opportunities available, a list of Contacts, Support for staff who identify or have students with disabilities along with links to the other specialist support areas you may need to refer to during your time here.

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