During July, we shared two updates on this year’s pay negotiations. The first included an overview of the final pay offer, and the second confirmed that the offer had been rejected by two of the national trade unions, and that the formal New JNCHES dispute resolution procedure had therefore been invoked.
Following two dispute resolution meetings between the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) and the joint sector trade unions (UCU, UNISON, Unite, GMB and EIS), which took place on Monday 19 and Thursday 22 August, the following joint statement was issued:
“HE Trade Unions and UCEA yesterday (22 August) completed the meetings under the New JNCHES Dispute Resolution Procedure for the pay negotiations of the 2024-25 negotiating round following two days of intense discussions. UCEA has committed to write to the unions with its final offer in the week beginning 26 August. The Trade Unions will consider the Employers’ offer and both Parties will then discuss next steps.”
On Tuesday 27 August, UCEA formally wrote to the joint sector trade unions with an updated offer on a number of non-pay aspects of the 2024-25 negotiations. However, UCEA were not able to make any revised proposals to improve the pay uplift.
The joint sector trade unions now have seven working days to consider the revised offer, and it may be that third-party mediation and conciliation – normally through Acas – will follow, if both parties consider this would be helpful.
As the dispute resolution process remains ongoing, we don’t yet know when it will be possible to implement this year’s pay uplift. We expect to receive a further update from UCEA in the week of 9 September, and will keep staff informed. Once an outcome is known, the University will, of course, aim to implement and backdate the award as soon as possible, bearing in mind processing times.
For avoidance of doubt, these continuing discussions over the national pay offer do not impact on contractual incremental pay progression for those who are due to receive increments this month. These have been applied as normal.
You can read the full detail of this year’s negotiations on UCEA’s website.