UNISON’s national Service Group Executive met last week to discuss the employer’s final offer of 2.0% or £425 (whichever is greater) from August 2018.
The group noted that the offer still represents a real-terms pay cut and does not come close to the pay claim of 7.5% (or £1,500 and £10/hour minimum wage).
Given that a motion passed at the January 2018 conference committed the Service Group to reject and ballot over any offer which falls short of the claim, UNISON will now conduct a national consultative ballot for all members falling under the national UCEA agreement. The recommendation will be that members reject the offer and threaten industrial action.
At Brighton, we have been clear that a pay offer which comes in at less than inflation is a pay cut, and that higher education workers have to be organised enough to campaign for more. As soon as the timescale for the ballot is announced, we will do everything we can to make sure that all our members vote and that we can collectively campaign for a pay rise worthy of our hard work.
