The University of Cambridge has introduced measures to deal with the financial ramifications of Covid-19 (Coronavirus) including a voluntary pay reduction scheme for senior university staff.
The council agreed to introduce a voluntary temporary pay reduction scheme for six months. This would be effective for university staff whose salary exceeds £100,000. These employees will be asked to take a 10% pay cut. Additionally, the vice-chancellor of the university will also be taking a voluntary 15% pay cut over the next six months.
The university has also limited the use of its reward and progressions schemes for 2020/2021, affecting 8,000 academic staff. The professorial pay review, the grade 12 contribution reward scheme (where staff receive a pay reward of 3% of their base salary, to recognise them for their exceptional work efforts), the researcher increment scheme and the USL contribution reward (when heads of institutions reward research staff on the basis of outstandingly good work achieved by the member of staff) scheme will all be suspended temporarily.
The grade 1-11 contribution reward scheme, where employees receive a pay reward of 3% of their base salary to recognise them for their exceptional work efforts, will run, with applications only available to assist staff in the grades 1 to 5 bands, these staff members will only be able to apply for one-off single contribution payments during this time, in comparison to the unlimited contribution applications.
Stephen Toope, vice-chancellor at the University of Cambridge, said: “I acknowledge the huge efforts already being made by people across the academic university to help us stand up to the challenge of the Coronavirus crisis. I realise that coming on top of that collective effort, some of the measures agreed by the council yesterday will be a cause for further concern.
“I must reiterate that these extraordinary and temporary measures have been taken in the current context to prevent us from having to make some even harder choices further down the line. They are also part of a much wider set of actions that the university is undertaking to mitigate the financial damage caused by the pandemic.”