YORK lecturers today refused to mark students' work indefinitely as industrial action over pay and modernisation proposals escalated.

The move by the Association of University Teachers (AUT) follows two days of strike action by members at the University of York last week.

AUT York members say they have been forced to make the drastic step by what they call "the intransigence of the national employers".

They claim that a national pay package put forward by the Universities and Colleges Employers' Association would see many academic-related staff lose £47,000 over 21 years as annual increments are reduced.

AUT York spokesperson Dr Simon Parker said: "Today the AUT begins action short of a strike, including a boycott of all assessment work.

"Our members are doing this not because they want to hurt students, but because they have no choice. Having tabled a pay offer, which would reduce earnings for many staff by as much as £47,000 over the next twenty years, and which would destroy meaningful national pay bargaining, the national employers have refused to negotiate with the AUT and threw our negotiators out of talks, in central London, last December when we dared to disagree with them. This action does not have to happen. If the employers were to give a genuine commitment to address the AUT's concerns, there would be no need for an assessment boycott at all."

The boycott will also include call-out cover, job evaluation exercises, staff appraisal schemes and cover for absent colleagues.

Updated: 10:35 Tuesday, March 02, 2004