While the Association of University Teachers deploys one of the most provocative weapons in its fight against the proposed new pay framework (an exam and assessment boycott), lecturers' union Natfhe seems to have achieved more with a more modest tool - a thesaurus. Natfhe negotiators got employers to drop the word "excellence" from the criteria for performance-related pay after highlighting their concerns that the term, by its very definition, would exclude too many staff from grabbing the extra pay awards.