Equality at stake

Lecturers and other academic staff in universities and colleges of higher education will have read Stephen Rouse's letter with at least a degree of cynicism if not anger.

The major salary anomalies in higher education lie not between women and men, or between different groups of staff. They lie, as had been dramatically demonstrated recently, between higher education salaries and those of comparators in other sectors.

Mr Rouse's "reasoned" appeal for everyone to sit down and negotiate/consult on an internal system of job evaluation and comparison within higher education contrasts markedly with the past record of the higher education employers in decreasing salaries relative to external comparators.

A mechanistic approach to internal job evaluation through Hera has led members of my union - and their colleagues are in no way to be assumed different - to see the process as not only irrelevant but counter to the need to recruit, retain and pay for scholarly excellence.

Historically, Stephen Rouse and his (our) employers do not have a lot going for them in earning the trust of academic staff.

M. G. Roberts

National secretary, Association of University and College Lecturers