The annual pay negotiations between the employers’ organisation, UCEA, and the recognised trades unions at a national level have been ongoing over the past few months. The offer of a base pay uplift of 2% with higher increases (above 2%) up to pay scale point 15 from 1 August 2018 was made by UCEA on 10 May 2018.

Consultative ballots by UCU, EIS, UNISON and Unite have subsequently indicated that settlement is not achievable, whilst the GMB has accepted this offer. The agreed dispute resolution procedure has now concluded with no agreement having been reached.

UCEA has advised all participating institutions to proceed to implement the pay uplift. The University therefore plans to implement the pay increase in the September salary payment, backdated to 1 August 2018.

The University supported UCEA’s efforts to reach an agreed settlement with all of the recognised trade unions and we regret the fact that such a settlement has not yet proved possible. We have taken the decision to pay staff accordingly whilst the dispute continues, rather than delay payment until the dispute has been fully resolved.

The 2% uplift will be applied to all spinal points of our pay scale above scale point 15, with additional loading for spinal points 3 to 15 in the continuing effort to address salary differentials within lower grades.  Spinal point 2 will remain unchanged for now as we already pay at the proposed new level due to the increase applied in November 2017 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 in November 2018.  We are committed to paying all staff a Living Wage and this will be reflected in the pay scale from the appropriate date when the announcement is made. 

Once again, we regret that agreement has not been reached with all 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
Director of Human Resources
on behalf of Senior Management Group

           

First published: 20 August 2018

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