Unions anger at wage rises for University of Bath managers
Unions have reacted angrily to a decision to increase the pay of senior managers at the University of Bath while other campus staff are being told to accept a real terms pay cut.
Earlier this year the University and College Union (UCU), Unison, and Unite published a report on the university's pay procedure, highlighting the fact that the highest earners had seen their salaries going up at a faster rate than anyone else.
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University of Bath vice chancellor Professor Glynis Breakwell
Now, the university remuneration committee, which fixes the vice-chancellor's and other senior managers' pay, has met again and boosted their earnings by an average of 4.62 per cent.
The exact details have been kept secret, but UCU says this could mean that vice-chancellor Professor Glynis Breakwell will see her £284,000 pay packet increase by £13,120 a year, which equates to almost the entire salary of the lowest paid university employee.
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This comes at a time when unions are being told to accept a one per cent pay increase which, taking account of inflation, they say is effectively the fourth pay cut in a row.
Hedley Bashforth, secretary of UCU's Bath branch, said: "People who work in universities are being told to take another pay cut yet the people who run the universities have seen huge real pay increases.
"At the same time as students are being told to take on massive debts to pay for their degrees, university bosses are getting a pay rise. It now takes the fees of 40 undergraduates at Bath to cover the remuneration of the vice-chancellor alone.
"UCU wants to see much more transparency in the decision-making process for higher earners' pay. We want to know how it is decided and we want to see elected staff representation on the remuneration committee.
"Our union's national policy is that the boss should be paid no more than ten times the pay of the lowest paid employee at the university. If our call continues to fall on deaf ears we will set up our own remuneration committee to sit in judgement on the bosses' performance."
A spokesman for the University of Bath defended Professor Breakwell's salary and the way senior staff's pay was decided.
He said: "The salary and conditions of service of our vice-chancellor and specified other senior members of staff are independently determined by the remuneration committee, which is a sub-committee of the university's council. Membership and terms of reference of the committee are made public."
He added: "The committee considers a wide range of factors in coming to its decisions including many of those raised by the unions. Remuneration packages for vice-chancellors reflect what is required to recruit and retain individuals able to run complex, multi-million pound organisations operating in a highly competitive, global market.
"The vice-chancellor plays no part in the deliberations of the remuneration committee regarding her terms and conditions of service."
Comments
by a1rhellair
Tuesday, November 27 2012, 8:39PM
“Bath uni's deputy director of policy & planning has recently joined bath spa. That should be a significant salary saving for the fuddy-duddy university. Interesting though, their Secretary - head of legal services - keeps refusing to answer my questions. The latest relates to why they are using underhand techniques of spying on staff. Apparently, they don't wish to "enter into any further discussion on the matter" with me. Ah well. Rooting out incompetence and corruption is never easy or straight-forward.”
by spadat1256
Tuesday, November 20 2012, 10:17AM
“Also gave me great pleasure to watch Bath university team's resounding loss to Cambridge. Well-deserved. They are a product of a jumped-up university run by an overpaid Vice-chancellor.”
by jonquil
Tuesday, November 20 2012, 9:08AM
“I hope jn the light of her payrise she may see fit to ensure her students who reside in Oldfield Park, will keep the properties they rent, clean tidy and quiet, I object that someone who oversees all of these students, being paid a fortune to give a lot of us grief with these overstuffed houses that families could do with.”
by a1rhellair
Tuesday, November 20 2012, 12:34AM
“Vix, I don't think Dame Glynis gives a damn about what others earn. If dame or her cronies had a miligram of decency, then these obscene pay rises wouldn't happen.
When it was looking to cut jobs and protect the 'Glynis' fund' 3 years ago, bath uni went about it in a most despicable way - http://tinyurl.com/d557of9
Yet cutting one of its pro VC's jobs or a senior manager's, eg. the director of policy & planning, would have saved more then 150k gbp per year. Yet it cut jobs of people who barely earned 20k per year.
It gave me great pleasure to watch bath uni's team lose spectacularly to Pembroke college, Cambridge at university challenge. So these are the students who have a 85 per cent employment rate after graduation and have expressed 91 per cent satisfaction in national student surveys? From a university that is in the sunday times top 3? More at: http://tinyurl.com/d2otyrd”
by Viscount_V
Monday, November 19 2012, 5:53PM
“So a nurse gets payed £18-27K. An oncology nurse below £40K. A radiologist £21-24K. Many NHS Consultants under £100K. A firefighter £21-28K. A police officer £22-25K. A paramedic ditto.....
Sleep easy with your payrise Ms Breakwell.”
by a1rhellair
Monday, November 19 2012, 5:09PM
“Yes, would be good to see an ostentatious lifestyle lived at public expense. But, I prefer to view art in public places, where everyone can see it for nothing. Didn't Dame Glynis charge her staff a fiver for 'inviting' them for tea recently?
In my opinion, nothing makes her worth 300k gbp. She's unpopular with staff and her peers; when I've asked, no one has had anything good to say about her. Made me wonder why - if she is such a good leader, paid megabucks and so on.
Previous VCs stayed about 5 years on average. She's heading for 12. Unemployable, maybe? Or having too much of a good thing at public expense?”
by 26sean
Monday, November 19 2012, 4:19PM
“@a1rhellair
Was it that long ago ? Some really great piece's of art if you get the chance you must pop up when there is a public event.”
by a1rhellair
Monday, November 19 2012, 3:18PM
“More at: http://tinyurl.com/bmjhtbx”
by a1rhellair
Monday, November 19 2012, 3:18PM
“".....Former broadcaster, Anna Ford was present at the Vice-Chancellor's residence in Lansdown Crescent, Bath, this weekend,...."
More at: null”
by 26sean
Monday, November 19 2012, 12:50PM
“Where's the free house ?”