Unite organises workers in all areas of education in the UK and Ireland. Our members work as research, technical, IT, administrative, estates, support and maintenance staff. 

Siobhan Endean, national officer 

UNITE JNCHES PAY CONSULTATIVE BALLOT 2019
CONSULTATIVE BALLOT PAPERS POSTED 16th MAY

Anyone who does not receive a ballot paper please contact the Holborn Head Office on 0203 371 2017, giving your name, membership number, full postal address and a brief message.

UNITE IS ASKING YOU TO REJECT THE OFFER AND TO BE PREPARED TO TAKE INDUSTRIAL ACTION IF NEEDED. It is important that you have your say in this consultative ballot and whatever your views on the offer, I would urge you to use your vote by returning the ballot paper in the prepaid envelope. YOUR VOTE IS IMPORTANT. This is a consultative ballot for now. THE BALLOT OPENS ON THE 16th OF MAY AND CLOSES ON THE 1st JULY AT MIDDAY.

Unite members in Higher Education are hardworking, loyal staff who care passionately about the work that we do. Staff working in Higher Education have suffered below inflation pay rises in recent years which means our pay is not keeping pace with the cost of living; 50% of Unite members frequently work longer than their contracted hours; 72% of members experience work place stress and 50% rate staff morale as bad or terrible.

Our pay claim of the inflation rate (RPI) plus 3% reflects that pay in higher education is falling behind public sector pay. The pay claim asked the employers to address the increasing workloads of staff, address the gender and ethnicity pay gaps and further look at bringing outsourced staff back in house. We also asked our employers to address the unfairness that many Universities have a 37 or 39 hour week. There should be a 35 hour week for all university staff without loss of pay.

Unite is recommending that you should vote to REJECT the employer's final pay offer which is a below inflation pay rise of 1.8% for any one above salary point 16. Whilst some Unite lower paid members will achieve the foundation living wage with this offer, it does nothing to address pay drift for those higher up the spine points or indeed pay drift to all other elements of the spines including the lower end.

The results of this ballot will be reported back to the employers, so that we can ask them to come back to the negotiations with a better pay offer, and also inform our negotiators whether there is strong feeling among our members to formally ballot for industrial action.

The full offer is below. The offer of base pay uplifts to the New JNCHES pay spine points, from 1 August 2019, salary point 1 is deleted and points 2 to 16 are set out below. 

 

Salary August 2018 (£)

Salary August 2019 (£)

Increase (%)

2*

15,842

16,420

3.65%

3

16,146

16,736

3.65%

4

16,460

17,046

3.56%

5

16,766

17,361

3.55%

6

17,079

17,682

3.53%

7

17,408

18,009

3.45%

8

17,751

18,342

3.33%

9

18,189

18,709

2.86%

10

18,688

19,133

2.38%

11

19,202

19,612

2.14%

12

19,730

20,130

2.03%

13

20,275

20,675

1.97%

14

20,836

21,236

1.92%

15

21,414

21,814

1.87%

16

22,017

22,417

1.82%

17

22,659

23,067

1.80%

18

23,334

23,754

1.80%

19

24,029

24,461

1.80%

20

24,771

25,217

1.80%

Points 17 and above to increase by 1.8%.

UNITE IS ASKING YOU TO REJECT THE OFFER AND TO BE PREPARED TO TAKE INDUSTRIAL ACTION IF NEEDED. It is important that you have your say in this consultative ballot and whatever your views on the offer, I would urge you to use your vote by returning the ballot paper in the prepaid envelope. YOUR VOTE IS IMPORTANT. This is a consultative ballot for now. THE BALLOT OPENS ON THE 16th OF MAY AND CLOSES ON THE 1st JULY AT MIDDAY.

Anyone who does not receive a ballot paper please contact Dawn Anderson at the Holborn Head Office on 0203 371 2017, giving your name, membership number, full postal address and a brief message.