2018 National Pay Award
Negotiations for the 1 Aug 18 national pay award began in March this year between the University and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA), on behalf of the employers and the five recognised Trade Unions. Only one of the Trade Unions has accepted the offer and UCEA believe that a settlement with the remaining four is unachievable this year. Whilst the employers remain committed to collective pay negotiation, UCEA do not believe that staff should have to wait for this uplift and have advised that it should now be implemented.
The offer to be implemented comprises a 2% uplift to all spine points, with extra on the lowest 15 spine points, in addition to the 3% pay increase for those staff eligible for pay progression. On average this is a 3.5% pay increase which UCEA believes compares well to other pay outcomes in the public sector and elsewhere.
The relevant University webpages are being updated and we expect to implement with August pay.
USS Pension
The 2017 valuation of the USS Pension Scheme estimated that the scheme requires an extra £900M per year in contributions to continue to delivering the same level of Defined Benefit. As no agreement has been reached by the Joint Negotiating Committee on how to respond to this challenge, USS will be implementing the agreed cost-sharing process where this extra cost is shared between the employer and the employee. In Sep 2018 USS will formally consult with all members of the scheme and more details about what this means for members can be found at this link.
Richard Brooks
Director of HR
Martin Williams
Director of Finance