Are you salaried staff and did you receive an annual increment this month by moving up a spinal point on the pay scale? Congratulations! This is a recognition given to roughly 30% of higher education staff of gained experience and expertise. It is not a “pay rise”, as senior managers at Cardiff University are telling members of staff.

University management were keen to deny staff this uplift in pay. In May 2020, they sought permission from campus unions to scrap increments, as part of a cost-saving drive to “save the University that we all love”. The campus unions refused to give their permission for these unnecessary cuts.

University managers’ cost-cutting plans were based on apocalyptic predictions of reduced income, due to students apparently not wanting to study at the university. Campus unions rejected this manufactured crisis scenario. Not enough was known about student numbers, and managers failed to demonstrate that they made cost savings elsewhere.

Recent projections of expected student numbers appear to be vindicating the campus unions’ stance on rejecting the scrapping of annual increments.