Showing posts with label Update. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Update. Show all posts
Tuesday, 13 September 2022
Monday, 29 August 2022
Thursday, 4 August 2022
Clarification
Dear Members,
You will have seen by now the latest Staff Comms from LJMU, with regard to the Higher Education Pay Award for 2022/23.
UNISON and UNISON@LJMU are still in dispute with UCEA and LJMU regarding this issue, we are still urging members to participate in the ballot for industrial action. Just because the pay award offered will be imposed on staff from the 1st August, doesn’t mean the issue is concluded.
The large increase in the pay for lower grades is only due to changes for the National Minimum Wage. All other grades will only receive around 3%, you are all worth a lot more than this.
Please remember to take part in the Industrial Action Ballot. UNISON in Higher Education is asking you to vote YES!
The choice is entirely yours and the ballot is confidential. No matter how you vote, we urge members to return your ballot paper in the pre-paid envelope in the post by no later than the 24th August, so it arrives in time for the noon deadline on the 26th.
Thank you for your continuing support.
UNISON@LJMU
More information can be found at:
www.unison.org.uk/wereworthmore
Tuesday, 2 August 2022
Monday, 1 August 2022
Thursday, 14 July 2022
Final Pay Dispute Meeting
Dear UNISON Members,
At the final dispute meeting this morning the employers failed to make an improved offer on pay. This mean the offer remains the same as previous emails which is 3% from spinal point 20 and above. In real terms is a pay cut given that this fails to match any measure of inflation.
Realistically, this means the only way we are going to get anything near a decent pay award, is to force the employers back to the negotiating table. That means voting YES, for strike action in the forthcoming industrial action ballot which opens on Friday 22nd of July.
We
as a branch will be sending out information and asking members to look out for
the ballot papers arriving on or after the 22nd. We need you, our members to get
out and use your vote.
By law we need to get above the 50% threshold of members to participate in the ballot. Then we need to get above the 50% voting threshold for the YES vote, in order to get lawful industrial action.
Please use your vote. Vote for strike action. We're worth more, we can't afford less.
Monday, 11 July 2022
Wednesday, 1 June 2022
Monday, 9 May 2022
Final Pay Offer 2022/23
Dear Unison Member,
Below is an update and final the well below inflationary pay offer received today. The lower end of the pay grades from Spinal Points 3 to 20. All points above point 20 will increase by 3%.
Thursday, 28 April 2022
H.E. Pay 2022 - Update
The joint trade unions (UNISON, UCU, Unite, EIS and GMB) met with UCEA for the second pay negotiating meeting of the new Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff (new JNCHES) on Monday 25 April 2022.
Our meeting took place in the context of over 10 years of real terms pay cuts for our members working in Higher Education, and in the midst of the biggest cost of living crisis for 30 years. Our members have worked tirelessly to keep the sector going over the last two difficult years and we hoped that employers would acknowledge the need for real recognition and reward for that work.
Following the first meeting on 30 March, the joint trade unions received an initial offer in writing from the employers on 21 April. This offer fell well short of our joint pay claim. It involved an offer of a 2.75% sub-inflationary rise on the majority of pay points, with bottom loading on pay points 3 - 19 ranging from 6% at point 3 to 2.8% at point 19, to accommodate the legal requirement to meet the new national minimum wage. The offer included a rise in all other pay related allowance by the same percentage points, and an offer to continue talks to progress all other elements of our joint claim.
Current LJMU Pay Scales
Currently as Proposed Pay Scales
At the second meeting the joint trade union side pressed the employers hard on the current cost of living crisis and the impact of this on our members, and on the need to address and eradicate poverty pay. We stood by all elements of our claim and reiterated that we are seeking real progress on those issues in relation to the compression of the pay spine, pay inequalities, workload, stress, insecure employment, outsourcing, redundancies and Scottish JNCHES.
We made it clear to the employers that we are aware that low pay is making it increasingly difficult for universities to recruit to their lower paid jobs and some others, and that demoralisation amongst staff at all levels is now a massive issue, with a knock-on effect on health and wellbeing.
We pointed out that the adjustments being offered at the bottom of the pay spine were not generous and no more than was necessary in order to accommodate the rise in the national minimum wage, and that this offer was a pay cut, in real terms, not a pay rise. We pushed the employers to make a more substantial offer, and they came back to say that they could offer another 0.15% on the pay bill overall. This means the majority of staff are being offered 2.9%.
In the context of the real suffering we know our members are currently experiencing, we found this to be a woefully inadequate response.
We are expecting a revised offer from the employers in writing within the next few days and the third pay negotiating meeting of the new Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff (new JNCHES) will take place on 5 May 2022.
Wednesday, 27 April 2022
Wednesday, 6 April 2022
H.E. Pay 2022 Update
Delays to university pay talks are ‘unacceptable’ say unions
The UCEA’s decision not to present a pay offer ‘sends a message that employers don’t understand the urgency of the issue’
Joint education unions, including UNISON, have voiced their ‘outrage’ at the university employers’ decision not to present a pay offer for members in the first meeting of the 2022/23 pay round, last week.
The five unions, who are part of the Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff (JNCHES), released a statement yesterday, condemning the decision by the Universities and Colleges Employer’s Association (UCEA) that they were “not yet in a position” to present a pay offer.
The UCEA was presented with the unions’ fully evidenced pay claim at the end of February and had over a month to consider it and prepare an offer.
Without one, higher education members are being left in limbo at a critical moment for the sector, with workers facing a massive cost-of-living crisis after years of below-inflation pay increases.
Furthermore, the decision to delay the pay process comes in the middle of an ongoing dispute about the 2021/22 pay round which has resulted in industrial action mandates for nine UNISON branches, seven of whom have taken strike action in the last fortnight alone.
In the statement, the unions said: “These are unprecedented times, and we can’t underestimate the impact on our members. We would expect UCEA representatives to act with urgency in putting an offer on the table.”
The employers have now committed to providing an offer in writing before the next meeting of the JNHCES on 25 April.
***** JOINT STATEMENT
On 30 March, representatives of the five trade unions of the New Joint Negotiating Committee for the Higher Education Sector (JNCHES) met with representatives of the Universities and Colleges Employers’ Association (UCEA) in the first meeting of the 2022-23 bargaining round. This occurs in the middle of an ongoing dispute and industrial action over the 2021-22 round, and a live ballot from three of the five trade unions.
These negotiations take place at a critical moment for our sector, in which our members face spiraling inflation and unhealthy working conditions.
Our claim https://www.ucu.org.uk/media/12528/HE-unions-claim-2022-23/pdf/TUJNCHESclaim202223FINAL.pdf was prepared over three months, and the headline demands were given to UCEA on 28 February.
Having had these headline demands for over one month, and having consulted their member institutions, UCEA representatives were well placed to table an opening offer to address both the serious cost of living crisis facing our members and the deep-seated discontent in the higher education sector. These are unprecedented times and we can’t underestimate the impact on our members we would expect UCEA representatives to act with urgency in putting an offer on the table.
Instead, early in the negotiations, UCEA informed us that they were ‘not yet in a position to present their offer to our members. Delaying serious negotiations is unacceptable given UCEA’s responsibility to staff, students, and to the employers who are their members. The joint trade unions are committed to the process of collective bargaining, and the clear benefits that sector-wide standards for pay and working conditions offer higher education in the United Kingdom.
Following just under five hours of discussions, ending with a powerful presentation on the insulting and derisory nature of a decision to frustrate negotiations, the trade unions were forced to conclude that UCEA had no intention of negotiating seriously.
Given the immense pressure that is facing HE institutions and staff from continued industrial action, and the prospect of more joint action in the near future, we must question UCEA’s judgment in delaying meaningful negotiations, and whether they did in fact have a mandate to delay from their constituent member institutions.
Our members have stood by universities over the last 2 years when they were told there was financial uncertainty due to Brexit and COVID which did not materialize. They have been on and off furlough, changed roles, adapted to working on and off-campus, and taken on additional responsibilities. Our members will rightly feel that the last 2 years have disproportionately impacted some of the lowest-paid workers and equality groups in our sector.
We are aware that members will share our outrage at the behavior of our employers’ negotiators, and call on employers who share this displeasure and who wish for an end to the unhealthy industrial relations in this sector, to ask whether their representative’s acting in this way is in the best interests of employers, staff, and students. Trade union representatives view the conditions facing our members and the sector with the utmost seriousness and will continue to seek a resolution that will lead to a healthy and flourishing sector focusing on a shared commitment to education and discovery of knowledge.
A joint statement agreed by all five HE trade unions, March 2022.*****
Ruth Smith, UNISON senior national officer for education, said: “It’s a great disappointment that the UCEA negotiators have decided not to present an offer, especially at a time like this, and it sends a message that the employers do not understand the urgency of the issue.
“Last year, most members only received a 1.5% increase, and the year before there was a pay freeze. Now, with spiraling inflation and members facing massive increases to their gas, energy, and food bills, the last thing they need is more uncertainty.
“The employers must understand the genuine hardship that many of our members working in higher education are currently suffering.
“Members were hoping for some good news from this new round of talks, but they will be bitterly disappointed that the employers had nothing to say on pay, at this critical time.”
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