Dear colleagues,
This is to provide you with an update on the work of the Reward Consultation and Negotiation Group. You can also read more about the Group here.
- Accredited Living Wage
The Group discussed the new Accredited Living Wage rate, announced by the Living Wage Foundation in October (rising from £12.00 to £12.60 per hour).
It has been agreed that the new hourly rate will be implemented with effect from 1st November 2024. This includes maintaining a small differential between spinal points 7 (£12.60 per hour), 8 (£12.67 per hour) and 9 (£12.74 per hour).
You can view the salary scales, including the new hourly rates for spinal points 7, 8 and 9 from 1st November 2024, here.
Staff impacted will see the update to their pay from the November payroll run.
- National pay negotiations
The Group continue to discuss progress with the national pay negotiations. As previously communicated, universities were advised by the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) to proceed with applying the % uplifts in pay, with the first uplift effective from 1st August 2024, and the second uplift to be paid from 1st March 2025. The salary scales have also now been updated to show the uplifts from March 2025.
UCEA and the joint Higher Education trade unions met for the autumn New JNCHES meeting on 12th November 2024. UCEA and the unions discussed plans to begin joint work on the pay related elements (pay spine review, contract types, pay gaps and workload), and meetings to take forward each of these workstreams will begin as soon as possible.
UCU are holding a consultative ballot of their members, regarding the pay element of the final offer, which is due to close on 3 December 2024.
- Allowances
Allowances apply to a range of different circumstances, including on call, acting up, first aid, market supplements as well as for specific posts including night shift allowances.
The Group discussed the fact that the rates of many of the allowances have not been considered for some time and has agreed that it is appropriate to review them, with the key aim to benchmark and ensure that they remain in line with levels paid in the sector.
The Group agreed the following allowances/policies will fall within the remit of the review: on-call; acting up and additional responsibility; night-shift allowance (cleaners/cleaning supervisors); wedding allowances (sacrists and porters); first aid; workstation assessor; confined spaces; grounds (on-call winter months); market supplements.
The Group will start the review in February 2025, with the aim of agreeing any changes to be effective from August 2025. An update on discussions will be provided in due course.
- Casualisation (Guaranteed Minimum Hours and Temporary Services contracts)
At its most recent meeting, the Group discussed data about Guaranteed Minimum Hours contracts issued since the start of this academic year. This was to consider whether practice is in line with the guidance and, in particular, that the minimum thresholds agreed for contracted hours (20 hours – Professional Services posts; 30 hours – Academic posts) are being applied, as well as a higher level of hours being offered to staff where a need above the minimum threshold can be identified.
The data highlighted that just under 200 GMH contracts had been issued, with 88% of them including hours at or above the minimum thresholds specified in the guidance. Work continues to establish that the remaining contracts have been issued in accordance with the guidance.
At its next meeting the Group will discuss the regular report about GMH contracts that it receives which identifies actual hours worked compared with contracted hours, to continue to review progress in this important area which also forms part of the pay related elements of the national pay negotiations.
A reminder that if any member of staff with a Temporary Services or Guaranteed Minimum Hours contract has any concerns about their contract they can raise this with their HR Partner/Adviser.
- Regrading and Career Development for Professional Services Staff
One of the areas of work that was paused, to allow HR resource to focus on activities linked to financial sustainability, was the work of a sub-group to review the Regrading Policy and career development for Professional Services staff.
The Group agreed that it is appropriate to now re-start this work, with significant progress having already been made by the sub-group to review the Regrading Policy. The aim will be for the sub-group to start meeting again in early 2025 and a further update will be provided in due course.
- Feedback
If you would like to provide feedback on any of the reward activities you can do so by contacting reward@abdn.ac.uk, your line manager or your trade union representative (Unison – Owen Cox (o.m.cox@abdn.ac.uk); Unite – unite@abdn.ac.uk or Brian Paterson b.paterson@abdn.ac.uk; UCU - ucu@aberdeen.ac.uk).
Liz Rattray
Chief Operating Officer (Acting)