Reporter 11/6/03: Joint Report of the Council and the General Board on the implementation in Cambridge of the 2002 pay increase for non-clinical academic and academic related staff: Notice

Joint Report of the Council and the General Board on the implementation in Cambridge of the 2002 pay increase for non-clinical academic and academic related staff: Notice

9 June 2003

The Council have considered the remarks made at the Discussion of this Report on 29 April 2003 (Reporter, p. 887). They have consulted the General Board and have agreed to comment as follows:

Professor D. W. Phillipson's remarks concern this Report and the Joint Report on arrangements for the regrading of offices and posts and for the award of discretionary increments. Both Reports referred to a category of staff designated 'academic-related', and Professor Phillipson expressed a concern at what he perceived as a tendency to categorize University officers in a manner which runs contrary to the University's Statutes and Ordinances. It is true that the Statutes and Ordinances do not explicitly refer to a category of staff as 'academic-related'. However, notwithstanding the definition under Statute D, 1, 1(a) which categorizes all established officers as academic for the purposes of Statute U, it is generally well understood in the University and the HE sector at large that academic staff are officers primarily engaged in teaching and research, while those officers whose primary function is to support the academic activities of the University are known as 'academic-related'. The Council and the General Board recognize that in the case of a few officers this distinction is not clear cut, as their role may include providing both support and/or a service and also some teaching and/or research. They also recognize that in a number of contexts, including those concerning human resource matters, the distinction between academic and academic-related officers and posts is valuable.

With regard to Professor G. R. Evans's points on the use of 'golden hellos' and supplementary payments, the Council and the General Board reiterate their response made in previous Reports and Notices that the University must be able to operate effectively in recruiting and retaining staff if it is to remain competitive; the current schemes for making recruitment incentive payments and supplementary payments have been approved by the Regent House.

Professor Evans also referred to the statement in the Report that payment of the annual cost of living pay increase to contract research staff and other staff supported on non-central funds is conditional on funds being available to meet the cost of the increase from the relevant funding source. The University continues to implement pay increases on the same basis as in previous years but, in practice, it is worth noting that in relation to the 1 August 2002 pay settlement all staff received the pay increase.

Neither of the speakers objected to the recommendation in the Report to abolish the bottom point of the University Assistant scale, and the Council submitted a Grace to the Regent House on 8 May 2003 (Grace 12, p. 882) for the approval of this recommendation.

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