HC Deb 21 November 1977 vol 939 cc509-10W
Mr. Paul Dean

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether she will make a statement on university teachers' salaries; and, in particular, what steps she is taking within the pay guidelines to rectify the disparities which arose when the arbitration award was not implemented in 1975.

Mr. Michael Shersby

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what assurances she has given to the General Secretary of the AUT concerning her intention to rectify the disparities in university teachers' pay; whether any settlement will be retrospective and if so from what date; and when she expects that the Government's pay policy will enable payment to be made to the teachers concerned.

Mrs. Knight

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if she will now take steps to implement the salary awards to university teachers made after arbitration in May 1975.

Mrs. Shirley Williams

Following the substantial Houghton award in 1974 to teachers employed at colleges of further education, who subsequently received a cost-of-living award from 1st April 1975, university teachers sought to reopen the settlement they had made on 1st October 1974. The claim went to arbitration, and the board of arbitration was instructed to establish the appropriate relativity between the two groups of teachers at an October 1974 price base, although it was recognised that no increase could be made in the pay of university teachers before 1st October 1975 because of the TUC guideline that there should be a 12-month interval between major pay settlements. It was to be assumed that further increases related to the cost of living would subsequently be negotiated subject to pay policy current at that time.

The arbitration award of June 1975, that is, the salary rates judged appropriate on an October 1974 price base, was put into effect in October 1975. What was denied to the university teachers was a further allowance to take account of changes in prices between October 1974 and October 1975. This was ruled out by the pay policy introduced in July 1975 and by the policy adopted in the succeeding year. Instead, the university teachers received the standard pay supplements allowable under those phases of pay policy.

The Government have given a clear commitment to review the anomaly between university teachers' pay and that of teachers engaged in comparable work in further education establishments, as soon as pay policy permits. Current pay policy allows for the most serious difficulties only to be tackled this year, if necessary on a phased basis, and taking full account of the need to keep the total settlement within single figures. What scope this policy offers for progress towards remedying the pay anomaly for university teachers has not yet been resolved. Meanwhile, there have been frequent informal discussions between Departmental officials and representatives of the university teachers and the university authorities, but no formal negotiations yet, in respect of the settlement for 1st October 1977.

Mr. Rhodes James

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what were the numbers of university teachers in the years 1974, 1975 and 1976 who emigrated to take up full-time academic appointments overseas.

Mr. Oakes

Excluding clinical academic staff in respect of whom the information is not available, the numbers were 235 and 234 in the academic years 1974–75 and 1975–76, respectively. The figure for 1976–77 is not yet available.