The campaign for your pay rise continues
The campaign for your pay rise continues
Last week’s Budget was an opportunity to bring an end to pay misery for public sector workers. Instead, the government refused to act.
UNISON’s response was unequivocal and featured in leading newspapers and blogs, with our general secretary criticising a budget that had ‘left public services gasping for air’.
Blog: Time to stop FE cuts and invest in education
Blog: Time to stop FE cuts and invest in education
https://www.unison.org.uk/news/2017/11/blog-time-stop-fe-cuts-invest-education/
The Living Wage
The Living Wage
The idea behind a living wage is very simple: that a person should be paid enough to live decently and to adequately provide for their family.
The national minimum wage is too low
The highest rate of the statutory national minimum wage is currently £7.50 an hour. This has been proven to be too little for a person to make ends meet for themselves and their family.
The voluntary national living wage rate is now £8.75 an hour, outside of London.
The voluntary London living wage is now £10.20 an hour.
Some 6.3 million people, 23% of the working population, earn less than a living wage.
The taxpayer is subsidising poverty wages to the tune of £3.6bn a year, including £1.1bn in means-tested benefits.
We won the minimum wage – I want to add a living wage to the list of the union’s achievements.
Dave Prentis, UNISON general secretary
University of Cambridge to seek Real Living Wage accreditation
The University of Cambridge will reinforce and extend its commitment to paying the Real Living Wage (RLW) following a motion to approve the proposal submitted today. The motion was passed in a joint consultation with various unions and Cambridge University Students Union (CUSU).
Ballot on Final Pay Offer
Dear Members,
The employers' final pay offer of 2% or £425 (whichever is the greater) is noticeably lower than the unions' claim for an increase of 7.5% or £1,500 (whichever is greater) and a minimum wage of £10 per hour. This falls well short of our aim. Recent years have seen a series of below inflation pay rises, which have made it increasingly difficult for HE staff to make ends meet.
UNISON’s Higher Education Service Group Executive (HESGE) considered the offer and agreed to consult with members with a recommendation that you should VOTE YES TO REJECT the offer. This is in line with UNISON’s 2018 higher education conference, which voted to recommend rejection of any offer that did not meet the claim agreed by the unions.
If UNISON members VOTE YES TO REJECT by a notable majority with a decent turnout, the HESGE will request a full industrial action ballot and seek to co-ordinate with other unions, which could lead to escalating industrial action to make the employers improve their offer.
We are therefore going to have a consultative ballot with our members in Higher Education. The ballot will start on Monday 9th July and will run for 3 weeks - so will close on 30th July.
I will be sending out the ballot information as soon as I have it all from UNISON National Office along with any other literature they send out.
Please look out for your ballot papers and think carefully about how you want to vote as by voting YES TO REJECT, you will be voting for Industrial Action.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.
Best wishes
Cathy
