Pay review bodies offer hidden solution

Martin Harris (THES, August 30) presents a cogent analysis of the plight universities face regarding academics' pay. As he says, this arises because they have more than satisfied the Government's two main public sector pay criteria of increased productivity and difficulties in staff recruitment, plus a third criterion of comparability on which MPs based their 26 per cent increase.

However, this contrasts markedly with the stance adopted by the Universities and Colleges Employers' Association which, with its current offer of 1.5 per cent has yet again proposed a real terms pay cut for academics and other staff.

Professor Harris, along with the UCEA, asserts that a pay review body would only be a solution if funding to implement its recommendations were guaranteed by Government. This view ignores the success of existing PRBs, for example that for school teachers, whose recommendations have kept pace with, or exceeded average earnings. The fact that PRBs were set up to aid employers to avoid damaging staff disputes seems not to have been realised by university employers.

Neil Macfarlane Chairman Association of University and College Lecturers