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So "a senior source for the employers" blames Association of University Teachers' negotiators for failing to talk through the night to reach a settlement. Well, the deal offered bears all the hallmarks of a document cobbled together at 3.30am.

In exchange for a massive upheaval imposing conditions known to be unacceptable to academic and related staff, we are offered a two-year pay freeze. Two years have been frittered away in failing to establish proper dual-table bargaining serviced by an independent secretariat and informed by data collected by the Office of Manpower Economics. That is what all sides are signed up to.

Philip Burgess
Former AUT negotiator