Category Archives: Pay

Higher Education Pay Offer 2018/19

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What’s the issue?

As you may have seen in recent updates, Unison has been in discussion with other Higher Education unions about the employers’ pay offer for 2018/19. Here’s what the unions asked for and what was offered by employers:

 

Joint unions’ pay claim: Employers’ pay offer:
7.5% or £1,500 + a minimum wage of £10 per hour

 

 2% or £425 (full time) whichever is higher

 

 

Due to the employers’ offer being significantly less than what was requested by all unions, Unison’s Higher Education Service Group Executive (HESGE) are recommending that members reject the employers’ offer.

How does this affect you?

  • The offer made by employers amounts to a real terms pay cut, inflation is higher than the 2% proposal
  • We have had several years of below inflation pay rises and yet living costs continue to rise, this offer does not address this
  • In the current climate, we are facing staff cuts in several areas of the University, which means we are facing an increase in workload without a meaningful pay increase

What happens next?

The Sheffield Hallam University Unison Branch will be running a consultative ballot which will be open for 3 weeks from Monday 9th July – Monday 30th July. This isn’t a ballot for industrial action; it is your chance to tell the branch what you think about the pay offer.

The more members that vote, the more accurately we can represent the views of this branch, so please look out for further details and do take part.

 

 

 

 

 

PAY 2023/24 UPDATE

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HE PAY 2023-24

Following the imposition of the pay award for 2023/24, and the continued dispute over the previous year’s award, members might have received emails from UNISON National HQ and seen messages on social media regarding ballots for strike action at some HE UNISON branches. Our branch is not included in this ballot. As a committee we were disappointed not to be included in the list of HE branches being balloted, and we know, both from personal conversations and the responses to last years questionnaire, that many of our members will feel the same way. We know that this round of balloting is unlikely to be the last. We also know that the number of ballots, online and postal, can be confusing for many members. Alongside this there are communications from national, regional and branch levels of the union which can overwhelm many. We are exploring ways to differentiate our local messaging from the national and regional, as suggested by members at our AGM, and hopefully provide a clearer, more focused line of communications for members.

CONSULTATION ON 2021/2022 HIGHER EDUCATION PAY OFFER

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A few days ago the Vice Chancellor sent an email to all staff to inform us that negotiations in the 2021/2022 pay round had concluded with UCEA – the employers’ organisation for Higher Education – making a final offer of 1.5% for the majority of staff (with more, on a sliding scale, for those lower on the pay scale).  The University intends to impose this offer in August.

UNISON’s position is that this offer falls far short of the pay claim that the joint trade unions submitted.    Last year (2020/2021) the employers imposed a pay freeze (UNISON is still in dispute about this) as a ‘reward’ for the exceptional hard work HE staff put in during the first year of the pandemic, which itself came after a decade of derisory pay awards.

UNISON is now asking members to say whether they accept or reject the 2021/2022 pay offer.

UNISON’s Higher Education Service Group Executive is recommending that members reject the 2021/2022 pay offer.   If you vote to reject the offer, you need to be prepared to take part in sustained strike action in order to improve the offer.

To emphasise: this is a consultation exercise, not an industrial action ballot.  The result of the consultation will be considered by the Service Group Executive.   If industrial action is to be taken, a formal postal ballot of members would then take place, with a 50% turnout required for a valid vote for action.

The 2021/2022 pay offer consultation will begin on Monday 24th May, closing on Friday 18 June.

All eligible members will receive an email with a link enabling you to vote in the consultation anonymously.   It will also be possible to vote online even if you don’t get an email (perhaps because you have not given UNISON permission to contact you in this way).   Any new members joining before 4th June will be sent a voting link by email.

Remember that you can update some of your personal details in the UNISON membership system here:  https://my.unison.org.uk/.

For more information see:  https://www.unison.org.uk/at-work/education-services/about/higher-education/fair-pay-for-he/

THANKS FOR NOTHING: HIGHER EDUCATION PAY OFFER 2020

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This year our employers offered a 0% pay freeze to all staff in Higher Education. This isn’t just a freeze; it is a pay cut: bills will increase this year, but our wages will not.  

UNISON and other Higher Education trade unions are unwilling to accept this “offer” and so you will be contacted in the coming weeks to consult as to whether you accept or reject the offer and would support sustained industrial action to push the employer to make a better offer.  

If UNISON has your email address, you’ll be sent an email when the consultation opens.

Please check we have the right contact details for you at MyUNISON before 16th November 2020.

National Pay Bargaining in Other Sectors

To put into perspective what this means for members working in Higher Education, employees included in 262 national pay bargaining deals this year are getting a better pay rise than us. Just 42 are seeing a pay freeze. Below are figures relating to pay offers this year being offered in other sectors:

In the public sector:

  • Council workers are all getting pay rises at different rates, which varies from around 2% (with more for the lowest paid). For example:
  • Northampton Council staff – 4% offered with 6.2% for the lowest paid.
  • Scottish Public Sector staff – 3% offered, with 4.1% for the lowest paid.
  • 8.4% for the lowest paid at the Department for Education.
  • Sport England staff –  2% offered.
  • Police Service staff – 2.5% offered.
  • Department for Work and Pensions staff – 2.5% offered.
  • Dental staff – 2.8% offered.

In the private sector:

  • Home Bargains staff – 15% offered over 2 years.
  • Tata Steel staff – 6.5% offered.
  • G4S staff – 6% offered.

Consultation on the Pay Offer

We believe all staff in Higher Education deserve a pay rise this year, especially when we consider all the hard work that staff have put in to keep the University running, from security staff working throughout the lockdown period, maintenance staff ensuring the campus is maintained to a high standard, admin and support staff ensuring that students are receiving enough support during this time and are able to register to their programmes, academic staff moving to online teaching and many more.  We all deserve more than a pay cut.

Consultation of members starts on 3rd November and ends on 30th November

For more information go to: UNISON Higher Education Campaign Page

HE EMPLOYERS ANNOUNCE 2020 PAY FREEZE PROPOSAL, AT ODDS WITH JOINT UNIONS PAY CLAIM

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The Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) has released a statement to the joint higher education trade unions that announces a pay freeze for 2020/2021.

UNISON head of higher education Ruth Levin said:

“With the real-term value of pay having fallen over the past 10 years, due to insufficient pay rises, it’s about time universities provided a decent pay rise to their staff.”

UNISON head of higher education Ruth Levin said: “This proposal is clearly a huge disappointment. Higher education support staff have worked so hard over the past few months to support students and colleagues to keep universities going.

“Universities will play a vital role in getting this country through the pandemic, in rebuilding the economy and in providing opportunity to the increasing numbers of eighteen year olds, and others, in coming years.”

The proposed pay freeze is at odds with the joint unions 2020 / 21 pay claim made in March, details of which are given below.

The 2020 / 21 Joint Unions Pay Claim

In March, HE unions submitted a ‘timely and serious’ pay claim for 2020/21 to include:

  • An increase in all higher education salaries by the Retail Price Index plus 5% on all 49 points of the national pay spine; for all pay related allowances including London weighting, to have same uplift;
  • The minimum hourly rate of pay for staff employed by universities to be £10.50 per hour. This is to be applicable to staff at all HEIs whether the standard full-time weekly employment contract is 35 hours per week or above
  • For the standard weekly full-time contract of employment to be 35 hours per week at all higher education institutions
  • Ending pay injustice – meaningful, agreed action to tackle the race, gender and disability pay gap; to take an intersectional approach to the ways in which intersectionality and protected characteristics impact on pay equality
  • Meaningful, agreed action to address excessive workloads and unpaid work; action to address the impact that excessive workloads are having on workforce stress and mental ill-health.

HAVE YOU POSTED YOUR BALLOT PAPER YET?

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If you haven’t used your vote, don’t worry there is still time! The ballot closes on the 30th October.

Following the consultative ballot on the pay offer UNISON is now formally balloting members on strike action in pursuit of the pay claim. Members of Unite and UCU are also being balloted. In line with the law the ballot must be conducted by post and 50% of eligible UNISON members must participate for a majority vote for action to be valid. Therefore every vote counts!

The employers’ final offer was 1.8% for most staff, however the unions asked for 3% UNISON says that this is not good enough and that’s why we are recommending a vote for strike action.

Our employer has now opted to impose the pay award of 1.8% for most staff, this does not mean that we have to accept the situation as it stands. If you believe that this is not good enough then use your vote to send that message.

You can use the UNISON pay calculator to see how much the value of your pay has declined since 2009. Go to: https://tinyurl.com/shupaycalc (scroll to the bottom of the page to find the calculator).

 

 

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UNISON PAY CONSULTATION

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You should have received an email from Jon Richards, UNISON’s Head of Education in the last week or so, urging that you use your vote in the ongoing pay consultation.   You may also have received a reminder.

The email includes a link to allow you to vote.  In the past we have conducted these consultative ballots locally, but they are now being run from National HQ.

If you are an eligible member but have lost your voting email or didn’t receive one, you can use this voting link instead (membership number required):

Vote now

Please do use your vote.    You can vote until 1st July.

The pay offer affects you, and your vote helps determine UNISON’s response.   UNISON is urging members to REJECT the offer, and will decide whether to proceed to a full ballot for industrial action based on the results of this consultative ballot.

UNISON’s pay claim, submitted jointly with the other Higher Education unions, was for a rise of inflation (using the RPI measure), plus 3% (or a minimum of  £3,349).     The claim also asked for a £10 an hour minimum rate of pay, for all Universities to become accredited Living Wage employers, a 35 hour working week, action to close gender and ethnicity pay gaps, and action on excessive workloads and stress.

The employers offered a rise of 1.8%, with an offer of between 1.82% and 3.65% for the lowest paid.

Check what it would mean for you here:  final pay offer.

Use UNISON’s pay calculator below to see how much pay you’ve lost over the last ten years:https://www.unison.org.uk/at-work/education-services/about/higher-education/pay-now-higher-education.

UNISON PAY CAMPAIGN 2019

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University employers improve offer at latest pay talks.

Unions representing workers across the UK higher education sector met employers for the second round of pay talks, and received an improved offer over that made at the first meeting on 26 March.

UNISON head of education Jon Richards (above) said: “While the employers made an increase to their opening offer, this still falls far short of the fair claim made by unions.

“As negotiations continue, the unions will push for an improved deal at the next meeting later this month.”

In March, the university employers said they had “an initial envelope for discussion of 1.3% across all the elements of the pay claim”

This week, they increased that ‘envelope’ to 1.5% and spoke of a 2.5% pay rise for the lowest paid staff.

 The unions and employers are due to meet again on 7 May.

 

Voluntary Living Wage – a qualified welcome

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The National Minimum Wage became law in 1998, taking effect the following year.  It introduced different minimum hourly rates according to age bands. In 2015, George Osborne announced that for over-25s, the minimum wage would be renamed the National Living Wage and increased significantly.  This was primarily a way of outflanking the Labour Party, which had proposed a lower rise in the minimum wage.   The change was introduced from 2016.

 Confusingly, a voluntary “living wage” has been in existence since 2011, arising from campaigning going back to the early 2000s.   The Living Wage Foundation sets the level of the voluntary – or as we prefer to call it, Real Living Wage based on the cost of living.  The aim is to provide a worker with the minimum pay rate required to provide their family with the essentials of life, which the statutory so-called National Living Wage does not do.    Employers signing up to the Voluntary Living Wage undertake to maintain the pay of their lowest paid staff at the independently set level, and are recognised for doing so.

 Here at Sheffield Hallam, UNISON first raised the Real Living Wage issue back in 2012.  We therefore welcomed the University’s decision to pay the Voluntary Living Wage to our lowest paid colleagues from August.  

 This takes the form of a Voluntary Living Wage Supplement, paid to staff on Grade 2 (we do not use Grade 1 here) and the first spinal point of Grade 3 whose hourly rate would otherwise fall below that rate.  There are over 100 people impacted by this move.

 The Voluntary Living Wage was adjusted to £9 per hour in November, and affected staff should see that reflected in their pay packets soon.  

 Our welcome for this move is a qualified one, however, because the University has decided not to become an accredited Voluntary Living Wage employer.  Also, the method chosen to pay the Real Living Wage – a supplement on top of basic pay – flattens out the pay levels for staff on Grade 2.  Nor does the supplement apply to contract staff and casual staff who are not counted as employees, although it does apply to placement students and apprentices.

 Nevertheless, the move is a genuinely progressive move that benefits a large number of workers, and we hope that it will be maintained in the years to come.

HE PAY BALLOT: HAVE YOU RETURNED YOUR VOTE

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To help us monitor turnout, please let us know you have voted.

This information will be used solely in order to monitor progress towards the threshold, and to inform our “get the vote out” activities – we are not asking for details of how you voted.

Either use the survey at https://unisonshu.org.uk/ls/payvote, or email dan@unisonshu.org.uk

The deadline for receipt of all ballots is Thursday 25th October.  If you have not received a ballot, there is still time to call the UNISON helpline on 0800 0857 857.

For more information see UNISON’s HE Pay website: https://www.unison.org.uk/at-work/education-services/about/higher-education/higher-education-ballot

A  pay  calculator,  to  help  you  work  out  how  much  your  pay  has  fallen  behind  is  here: https://unsn.uk/HEpaycalculator18