Angry lecturers set fire to letters warning of pay cuts; 400 Liverpool University academics in protest rally.

Byline: BY DEBORAH JAMES Daily Post Staff

AROUND 400 lecturers yesterday burned letters threatening to dock their pay in a defiant protest at the University of Liverpool.

On Monday, city academics were warned their salaries would be cut by 28% unless they returned declarations confirming they would not join industrial action in the national row over pay

But around 400 Liverpool AUT members killed their chances of a full pay packet as they destroyed both the letters and declarations, at a rally on Brownlow Hill.

Led by branch president John Fry the lecturers lined up and each took it in turn to set their documents on fire over a metal bin outside Blackwells bookshop.

Medical sociology lecturer Andrea Litva, also a LAUT officer, said: "Disgust is a word that comes to mind when I think of how the management are treating us.

"It shows the threat of litigation from students is worse for them than the threat of industrial action by their own staff.

"If they go ahead and dock our pay as of today then Liverpool will be the first university to do so in the country.

"For me, what they are taking represents a third of my pay, that is hundreds and hundreds of pounds.

"It means I will have to re-think everything from my childcare to how I get to work."

But, she said: "Of course we all feel sympathy with the students, but couldn't sign the declaration, we've come too far now."

Lecturers up and down the country are refusing to set or mark papers unless a 12.6% three-year pay offer is revised to 23%, to rectify a long standing deficiency of around 40%, compared to other similar professions.

The dispute is threatening to delay graduation for around 4,000 students at Liverpool, and around 300,000 nationwide, and has already seen 19 out of 800 exams postponed here.

Communications skills lecturer Maggie Hammond said: "The 28% figure is arbitrary, it's not clear how they arrived at it.

"We came here today to show solidarity with each other."

Before yesterday's rally the university's vice chancellor, Professor Drummond Bone, addressed the lecturers in a question and answer session.

Dr Fry, a physics lecturer, said: "We think the tone of our demonstration was entirely appropriate, the point we are making is that lecturers' pay falls far short of the comparable salaries.

"This is a national issue. We don't want to fall out with the university, but the time has come for something to be done, or we won't be able to attract quality people into academic jobs."

A spokeswoman for the university said the pay docking would go ahead for anyone who had not returned a signed declaration.

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CAPTION(S):

Lecturers including John Fry, right, local president of the AUT, burning their letters Picture: ANDREW TEEBAY