Dear Colleagues

The annual pay negotiations at a national level between UCEA, the employers’ organisation, and the recognised trades unions have been ongoing over the past few months. A final offer of a base pay uplift of 1.8% with higher increases up to pay scale point 16, effective from 1 August 2019, was made by UCEA on 30 April 2019.

The recognised trade unions have subsequently indicated that this offer is not acceptable to their members. The agreed dispute resolution procedure between UCEA and the recognised trades unions has now concluded with no agreement having been reached.

The University supported UCEA’s efforts to reach an agreed settlement with the recognised trade unions and we regret that such a settlement has not yet proved possible.

UCEA have advised all participating institutions to proceed with implementing the pay uplift. The University has therefore made plans to pay this uplift in this month’s salary payment whilst the dispute continues rather than delay payment until the dispute has been fully resolved. The uplift will be backdated to 1 August 2019.

The 1.8% uplift will be applied to all spinal points of our pay scale above scale point 16, with additional loading for spinal points 2 to 16 as the sector continues to address salary differentials within lower grades. Pay at spinal point 2 will remain unchanged for now as we already pay at the proposed new level due to the increase applied in November 2018 as part of our commitment as a voluntary Living Wage employer. The pay at spinal point 2 will almost certainly increase when the Living Wage is reviewed later this year, in November 2019. We are committed to paying all staff a Living Wage and will reflect this in the pay scale from the appropriate date when the announcement is made.

Once again, we regret that agreement has not been reached with the recognised trade unions. Full details of the final offer can be found on the UCEA website. Details of the updated pay scales can be found on the HR webpages.

Christine Barr
Executive Director of Human Resources
on behalf of Senior Management Group

 

 

 

 

 

First published: 19 August 2019

<< 19 August 2019