Update on national pay negotiations

As you may be aware, the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) has been negotiating nationally on behalf of universities in relation to the basic national pay uplift for 2024/2025 and have put forward a final offer to the recognised trade unions. UCL alongside nearly all universities are represented by UCEA in national pay negotiations.

More detail on that offer can be found here, but in summary it reflects a rise of between 2.5% and 5.7% to the pay scale (dependent on spine point), with the first tranche (proposed £900) of that award in August 2024 and the remainder in March 2025. UCEA has outlined that the offer has a cost of 2.5% on the sector pay bill in 2024/25, an ongoing cost of 3% from 2025/26 onwards and that this level of offer is at the limits of what the sector as a collective can afford, given the widely reported financial pressures within the sector as a collective.   

UCEA has structured the offer to deliver larger percentage rises to the lower half of the scale. The percentage rise gradually tapers down from 5.7% to 2.5% at spine point 38 onwards. As a result, for example, employees earning up to £38,205 pa basic salary will receive an uplift of over 3% on their basic salary.

Some of the recognised unions have rejected the pay offer and, as such, the negotiations now enter a period of ‘dispute resolution’ where further discussion between UCEA and the recognised unions will take place. At this stage we cannot implement the pay offer until the dispute resolution stage has been concluded. This means that it is unlikely that an increase will be included in August payslips but will instead be included in a later month, backdated to 1 August with arrears. We will keep you updated on further developments.