Can’t Pay or Won’t Pay? A note on pay rates for part-time lecturers at Birkbeck

Pay rates for part-time teaching staff at Birkbeck are something of a mystery.  The table that follows has been brought together form a variety of sources, including information received from members.  When Birkbeck UCU asked the college for the rates of pay across Birkbeck we were told that the information was too complicated to assemble, so we have done it for ourselves.  There may be some inaccuracies here and there, but we feel it is better to be out in the open as this note illustrates in stark terms the low rates of pay for the overwhelming majority of Birkbeck’s part time staff and the inequities of the current employment regime.

A large number of part-timers are paid rates that were set down when they worked as part of the Faculty of Lifelong Learning (FLL).  These rates were set down in 2007 when the college in its generosity agreed to pass in a nationally agreed 4 per cent rate pay rise (awarded as a result of the last big strikes in HE).  These rates, with a starting rate of £29.78 and a higher rate of £34.86 (after three years), have not increased since 2007.  At same time a slightly higher rates of pay of £36.11 was given in FLL to part-time MA teaching.  Taking into account the rate of inflation this means that pay at this level has effectively dropped by about 14 per cent since then.  Also, many of the part-timers on these rates teach on Certificates of Higher Education.  The fees for these courses have increased year on year since 2007 from £220 per 30 CATS points modules to £600 for the equivalent this year.  Not one penny of the increased fees has been passed on to part-time teaching staff.

It has become apparent that the college has been actively extending the lowest rates of pay inherited from the old FLL rate into departments and levels of teaching where these rates have never previously applied.  So, a recently advertised post for part-time MA teaching in children’s literature was to be paid at the old 2007 Cert HE starting rate of £29.78, £6.00 less per hour than the previously set MA teaching rate.  Under the current system different rates of pay are being paid to different to individual part time staff within the same department teaching on exactly the same or equivalent modules. In one instance a person teaching on a language course is being paid this year is being paid £44.21, while a colleague, equally qualified and teaching exactly the same module, is paid the old FLL sessional lecturer rate of £34.86.  These anomalies ate extensive and growing, and apply at the Cert HE, BA and MA level.

As the table below show there is a virtual free-for-all in rates of pay across Birkbeck with locally agreed pay rates within and between different departments.  Subject areas such as Management are virtually worlds unto themselves, with several different pay rates.  Yet this table tells only half the story.  It has become apparent that in some cases pay is agreed with individuals at rates that have no relation to any nominal pay rate.  This particularly applies to market oriented professional courses where rates of pay well in excess of this table apply.

These rates of pay have been imposed rather than negotiated.  The college has been saving money for years by keeping part time teachers pay at risibly low level.  This has been during a period when senior managerial pay has sky rocketed.  Are we really ‘all in it together’?

BBK hourly pay rates by cost code

(holiday entitlement in brackets)

SLC001 Lower hourly rate     £29.78 (£2.86)

SLC002 Higher hourly rate after 3 years service  £34.86 (£3.35)

SLC003 Non-accredited post 1996/7   £17.86 (£1.90)

SLC005 Non Accredited higher rate   £22.60 (£2.40)

SLC007 MA hourly rate     £36.11 (£3.46)

SLC008 ‘Management, etc. hourly rate’   £41.75 (£4.01)

SLC016 Practical Skills in Biosciences    £22.60 (£2.40)

SLC018 Archaeology     £25.62 (£2.20)

SLC020 Chemistry     £29.47 (£2.83)

SLC021 Languages (e.g. German I, French V)  £30.50 (£2.93)

SLC022 Philosophy (in law)    £30.70 (£2.95)

SLC024 Qualitative analysis    £36.50 (£3.50)

SLC025 Management economics   £38.32 (£3.68)

SLC027  Criminal Law     £41.33 (£3.97)

SLC029 History      £43.08 (£4.20)

SLC030 History/English (BA)    £44.21 (£4.24)

SLC034 Management (taxation)    £54.75 (£5.69)

SLC035 Management       £59.31 (£5.69)

SLC036 Management (marketing)   £62.96 (£6.04)

SLC037 Commercial Law for Business   £68.43 (£6.57)

SLC039  Leadership and HR management   £52.46 (£5.04)

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