Re: Joy Carter's unbelievable pay rise.

I have received a reply regarding Vice-chancellor Joy Carter's recent pay rise:

Dear Alex,

The press office have forwarded your email to us. The response from Professor Carter is below.

The Vice-Chancellor’s salary is determined by the Board of Governors – it is not subject to national negotiations. Conversely, the pay negotiations for other members of staff working in higher education does take place at a national level and not at a local level. The University remains sympathetic to the trade unions' case. The University of Winchester gives the national debate great consideration and will continue to do all it can to bring the dispute to a swift and just resolution.

Kind regards

Of course, this email has merely given their official position on the pay strikes whilst trying to pass the burden of justification to the 'Board of Governors'. As a side note, it strikes me entirely unfair that the top paid staff can easily improve their lot at a rate six times that of inflation when other staff are entirely controlled by an unresponsive national system. Such is state capitalism I suppose. Obviously this response is far from adequate, this is my reply: 

Hi again,

I understand that you wish to pass the burden of justification onto a differing layer of Winchester University's bureaucratic system (the Board of Governors). In light of this I will send my response to you, trusting that either you will be able to expand and answer my questions in the first email (which I have reformed below) or forward my email to those that can, so that I may get a satisfactory response.

Besides the fact that it seems entirely unjust that the top earners at the university can alter their wage via a local board of their friends and peers, when those lower down on the chain must go to an unresponsive  national system, these questions have still not been answered:

I will number them to make your response easier:

1) Why, in light of the current struggle for fair pay for some staff, did the Board of Governors think it an appropriate action to give an already very well paid member of staff a pay increase six times that of inflation and more than twice that of the entire wage of the lowest paid members of staff?

2) What justification can there possibly be for this open insult, which it is, to those members of staff genuinely struggling?

3) Is it possible to see a report by the Board of Governors on this matter? And if so, where?

Kind Regards,
Alex Mason.


Once again, I will be posting their response on this blog.