The Employers’ Side of the NJC met on 1 April to discuss the proposal by the three unions for a one-year deal and agreed timetables for implementation of the reviews of term-time working and the pay spine. In response, they said that they are not prepared to make a one-year offer and have only offered a Joint Secretaries meeting to establish a timetable for the reviews.
UNISON’s NJC Committee met yesterday to consider the Employers’ response. After a lengthy discussion, the Committee voted to continue to pursue the option of taking industrial action later this year. UNISON’s Industrial Action Committee will consider the Committee’s request for a ballot for all-out strike action on 13 April.
Unite also have a mandate for selective action on pay and will be meeting on 21 April to consider next steps. GMB members have now voted to accept the two-year pay offer by 9:1.
As UNISON and Unite remain in dispute over this year’s pay offer, the reviews of term-time working and the pay spine will not start until pay is settled.
The Employers’ response is extremely disappointing. The NJC needs to get on with the important work of reforming the pay spine to deal with the inconsistencies in pay and grading structures caused by the real Living Wage and the National Living Wage. School support staff have waited too long for a review of term time working too.
However, the pay offer means that 60% of NJC employees would receive just 1% in 2016 and in 2017, meaning the value of your pay will fall even further. More than half of the cost of our pay claim could be met from the higher tax and National Insurance income that would come from meeting our claim and from reduced in-work benefits.
The higher increases proposed on the lower pay scales are to ensure that employers comply with the National Living Wage law and to ‘front-load’ some of the increase to meet the £9.35 level which will be needed by 2020. Members have to be paid this – whether or not they were included in the LGA’s offer.
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