The Universities & Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) has advised universities to implement its revised national pay offer for 2023-24 for R&T and APM staff at Levels 4-6 who are covered by the national pay settlement.

This will provide colleagues in the R&T, APM and TS job families at Levels 4 – 6 with a national uplift for 2023-24 of either 5% or 6% depending on their point on the pay spine. At the University of Nottingham, the award will also be applied to TS staff at Levels 4-6; R&T and APM staff at Level 7.

Staff in these groups earning up to £30,502 will receive a total national uplift of 6% and those earning £31,411 or more will receive a total national uplift of 5%.

Whilst the full award will be payable from 1 August 2023, a 2% uplift or £1,000 – whichever is the greater – will be paid backdated to 1 February 2023. This element will be paid in salaries from the end of March and the University aims to pay February arrears at the same time.

UCEA has also advised that around half of the staff covered within national negotiations are also eligible for an additional pay progression increase (increment), this will apply from 1 August 2023 and is expected to be a further 3% increase.

Local pay award for staff at Levels 1-3, Technical Services, Childcare Services, Operations & Facilities job families

The University implemented a three-year pay award for staff in these groups of a 18.5% average that exceeded any other offer available in the higher education sector at that time, with an average of 8.2% paid in the current 2022-23 year. The University will shortly engage in the joint local pay negotiation process with the campus trade unions and update staff on the proposed settlement for 2023-24 as soon as it is able to do so.

USS pension

The latest quarterly monitoring figures of the USS pension scheme continue to show an improvement in the scheme’s financial position since the last valuation.

In a statement issued on Friday 17 February, Universities UK and UCU said this would allow for a return to a comparable level of future benefits as existed before the April 2022 changes, as well as achieve a reduction in costs for members and employers.

UUK and UCU have committed to joint collaboration through the 2023 valuation process to achieve the optimum outcome for all stakeholders after appropriate consultation.

ACAS-facilitated talks

Each year UCEA enters pay negotiations with the trade unions to agree the pay award for that year.  For the 2023-24 pay negotiations this was split into two phases – phase one focusing on pay, and phase two focusing on non-pay items.

The dispute resolution process for phase one has been facilitated by ACAS and led to UCEA making a revised pay offer for 2023-24, although an impasse rather than an agreement on the pay uplift has been reached.

The trade unions and UCEA are continuing ACAS facilitated talks, as part of phase two to determine the work necessary on non-pay items such as contract types, workload, and pay gaps. Further information will be provided once there is an update on the progress of discussions at ACAS.