Aberdeen Universities UNISON

HE Employers Make Final Pay Offer

UNISON has received a "full and final" pay offer from higher education employers, which the union's higher education service group executive will discuss on Monday 18 May.

The offer for 2015-16 follows pay talks between the employers and joint higher ed unions, and consists of:

• a 1% increase from 1 August for all staff covered by the higher education national agreement, who are on point 9 and above of the national pay spine;
• increases of between 2.6% and 1.1% for staff on points 1 to 8 of the spine (note this is not the same as "grades" at the universities - see more information below), which would bring the lowest salary (point 1) up to the current living wage rate of £7.85 an hour for a 35-hour week.

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Categories: Campaigns | Pay

UNISON seeks improved pay offer over 0.9%

UNISON will seek an improved pay offer when unions and higher education employers meet at their next scheduled negotiating session on 12 May.

This follows an offer from the University and Colleges Employers Association for a 0.9% pay rise for pay spine point 9 and above, with higher increases on points 1-8, (see below).

This would mean the starting point of the higher education pay spine would equal the living wage.

Scottish universities have separately confirmed that they will pay all staff at the country's 19 higher education institutions at least the living wage of £7.85 an hour "for the foreseeable future".

A spokeswoman for Universities Scotland added: "The intention of every institution in the sector to pay the living wage for the foreseeable future is sincerely meant, but it as far as the sector is able to commit at present, given the unpredictable nature of annual increases in the living wage and uncertainty in higher education funding."

"We will continue to negotiate with the employers to improve the opening offer," commented UNISON national secretary Jon Richard. "We will continue to press universities to address low pay in the sector."

• Read the full article on the national UNISON website

Categories: Campaigns | Pay

UNISON Scotland General Election Manifesto

The vast majority of UNISON Scotland’s members work in areas which are devolved to the Scottish Parliament, but even so the general election will still have a huge bearing on our working lives. With reserved issues including overall public spending levels, most economic policy, welfare spending and employment rights it could hardly be otherwise. The General election will also have a bearing on how matters decided at European Union level are translated into law.

In this manifesto we set out the issues that UNISON members will expect the political parties to address in the coming election and it should be read in conjunction with UNISON’s UK manifesto ‘Securing the future of our public services’.

• UNISON Scotland General Election Manifesto 2015 (PDF, 3MB)
• UNISON Securing the Future of Our Public Services (PDF, 773KB)

Categories: Campaigns | Members

HE unions submit 2015-16 pay claim

Higher education unions have submitted a joint pay claim for 2015-16 to the national employers' organisation, the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA).

The claim has been submitted by UNISON, UCU, Unite, GMB and EiS and covers two main areas - pay and pay-related equality matters - which the unions want to negotiate concurrently.

The pay claim deals with key issues that have an impact on UNISON members working on university campuses across the UK, such as the rising costs of living for higher-education workers.

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Categories: Campaigns | Members | Pay

RGU Car Parking Charges - Result!

The Robert Gordon University has recently been consulting UNISON on proposals to dramatically increase car parking charges.

We would like to thank all our members who took part in the consultation by providing feedback and attending meetings over the proposals. Taking into account all the information from our members, the branch were of the opinion that the proposals in their original form were not going to achieve the objective of reducing car travel, and at the same time would significantly increase costs to members of staff trying to get to work. UNISON submitted a detailed report to the University as part of the consultation and asked that the proposals be reconsidered.

We are very pleased to be able to tell our members that the University has listened to our consultation feedback, and as a consequence has revised their original proposal.

The increase in permit prices this year will be half of what was originally planned, keeping it in line with inflationary increases missed over the past few years - as UNISON had suggested. The University has also invited us to engage in further consultation, beginning in September on the issues we have raised regarding transport, and also issues that the University wishes to discuss with us, such as permit allocation procedures.

We think this is a positive step forward, and UNISON remains committed to promoting sustainable transport arrangements for all staff and students, whilst ensuring that travel to and from the Garthdee campus does not become so expensive as to be unaffordable.

Thanks once again, and we’ll keep you up-to-date on future consultations.

Categories: Members | Campaigns