A week ago, I blogged about the ‘action short of a strike’ being undertaken by the AUT. Shortly thereafter it was announced that UCEA had, through mediation, made a new pay offer whereby the average AUT member would receive a 12.44% pay increase over two years (double what was previously on the table) and national pay bargaining would be retained.
It’s taken a while because the AUT wanted to discuss the new offer with their membership, but today at their conference they agreed to suspend their action, pending a ballot of the membership. It is highly unlikely that the membership will reject this new offer as it is a major step in the right direction. All of us involved in Higher Education in the UK can heave a major sigh of relief.