UCU negotiators report to HEC, 12 January, 2023

The below is a response to UCEA’s initial offer for the 2023–24 bargaining round. This offer was submitted to the joint HE trade unions on 11 January, 2023.

Dear colleagues

After three meetings with UCEA we have finally seen an initial pay offer from the employers for 2023–24. This offer represents the following.

1. No improvement in 2022–23 (3% with a taper for the lowest paid). RPI in August 2022 was 12.3% (CPI was 9.9%).
2. A banded offer for 2023–24

• Grade pts 3 to 14–7% (2.8% to be paid from February)
• Grade pts 15 to 25–6% (2.4%)
• Grade pts 26 to 42–5% (2%)
• Grade pts 43 to 51–4% (1.6%)

1. No inclusion of pay-related elements

• UCEA proposes commencing negotiations over these elements (in the case of UCU: casualisation, workload and equal pay gaps) later in the Spring.

The interim payment is not additional, but an early compensatory amount, potentially conditional if we settle the dispute promptly.

Consequences for members’ pay

Both the immediate and long-term impacts of this offer will be extremely damaging to UCU members. Were it accepted it would represent the biggest real terms pay cut for university staff living conditions since the creation of the New JNCHES bargaining unit, and likely for a much longer period before that time. These cuts are of course on top of the 25% pay cut since 2009 UCU has previously cited.

With the important exceptions of some postgraduate members and some members in Academic Related and Professional Services (ARPS) roles, the majority of members will be employed on salary points above 26.

Negotiators have calculated that unless inflation falls before August 2023, the impact of these pay cuts on salary points above 26 will amount to: as much as 15.5% (pts 26–42) and 16.3% (pts 43–51) pay cut over two years against RPI, the unions’ jointly agreed inflation measure. See below, left. We would note, however, that the Chief Economist of the Bank of England is currently predicting that UK inflation will remain persistently high into 2023.

This pay cut represents an expectation that members would now work for nearly two months (57 and 60 calendar days) for free every year of their future working lives. See above, right.

The other unions are currently considering the offer.

The employers’ representative body has presented this offer as one which particularly benefits those in the lowest points on the pay spine. Our analysis, however, shows that for staff on spine points 3–14, pay will still be 10.7% lower after two years (equivalent to 39 unpaid calendar days). For those on points 15–25, the offer translates into a pay cut of 14.5% (53 calendar days).

This offer therefore represents a substantial real-terms pay cut for every member of staff in the Higher Education Sector.