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Your article "Discretionary pay is 'lottery'" (March 4) highlights the real risks of any kind of performance-related pay. The experience of new universities that have such schemes shows the dangers. The best known is that at London Metropolitan University, where the chances of black and ethnic minority staff getting the top award is half that of white academics, and where hourly paid staff are excluded.

University managers have consistently failed to put in place any equality proofing of pay systems, which is why Natfhe insisted that contribution points under the framework agreement could not be performance related or they would inevitably run a high risk of being discriminatory.

Will it take a high-profile tribunal case or a collective dispute to alert employers to the consequences of such discrimination?

Roger Kline
Natfhe