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This report is based on research findings indicating that many British colleges of further education have widely disparate salaries for professional staff members. Often salaries bear no relation to complexity of work performed. In addition, equal employment opportunity laws requiring equal pay for similar work may not be followed. A job evaluation scheme using rating points for various job functions and a typical position description resulting from the classification system are proposed. Following a description of the research project, the document includes the following: a sample job description detailing major tasks, job activities, and performance requirements; list of benchmark jobs; factor analysis of benchmark jobs; and the manual for the job evaluation scheme and the 10 rating factors--preentry qualifications, training period required, job knowledge required, particular skills, contacts and relationships, confidential information, effect of decision making, budgets/expenditure/income, managing staff, and health and safety. (KC)

Employment legislation in the United Kingdom from before 1970 to the 1990s has changed and with it collective bargaining in higher education. Industrial relations before 1970 were treated as a voluntary activity virtually unregulated by law. Then the Remuneration of Teachers Act 1965 set up the Burnham Committees, which until 1987 were the forum for salary negotiations and associated matters. In the 1960s and 1970s the normal pattern of collective bargaining was that unions made demands and management resisted, trying to minimize the concession they needed to make. The Donovan Commission and the resulting Donovan Report (1968) led to a great deal of legislation between 1970 and 1978 aimed at encouraging better regulated collective bargaining at workplace level. Legislation from 1979 onwards was aimed at regulating the power of the trade unions and bringing about a shift in the balance of power between unions and employers. As a consequence employers are now likelier to take a tough line in their handling of disputes and resulting defeat for the unions. Whatever policies higher education adopts for labor relations, college industrial relations should be a priority concern for managers and governors in the run-up to incorporation. Relevant Acts of Parliament are listed. (JB)