UNISON HQ emailed all NJC members today to update them on the Council and School pay award for 2023. Unfortunately, the update does not state any timescales for when members can expect to receive the back-dated award in their salary and we hope to receive further news on this soon.
The bulk email facility for branches remains suspended at the current time so we still cannot contact all NJC members directly. We have shared the latest update on Twitter/Facebook and for your information, we have also included the latest update below.
As soon as we have any more news, we will publicise it here and share via all the communication methods available to us.
Council and school pay 2023 – email to members – 22/8/23
From 23 May to 4 July UNISON held an industrial action ballot for council and school workers in England and Wales over pay. The results were sent out to regions and branches who have worked hard to share the ballot results with members. As this was a ballot of 345,000 members in more than 4,300 employers, the process of getting results out has been a complicated one, and we want to thank you for your patience throughout.
The support during the ballot and pay campaign from UNISON members across England and Wales has been incredible; the turnout was a huge improvement on the 2021/22 industrial action ballot and that groundswell of feeling will only build as we continue to campaign on pay. Due to the Tory anti-trade union laws, we can only take industrial action in employers where we achieved a turnout of 50% or more (with a majority voting for action) and unfortunately while we passed this turnout threshold in a number of employers, most of these were smaller employers. Given the legal restrictions that are in place from the Government, we have decided that it would not be effective to ask our members to take industrial action at this time.
We are currently in the process of talking to the other local government unions, GMB and Unite, so that we can now resolve this year’s pay dispute and get that pay increase in your pockets as soon as possible.
While the decision not to take industrial action may be disappointing to you, we are determined to continue our campaign to improve your pay – we want to get on with the 2024 campaign and build from here to the point where we can get the turnouts we need for strike action. We have come a long way and we would like to thank members, branches and regions for all of your hard work and determination in getting the vote out.
The fight continues and we will keep demanding fair pay for the vital work that you do.
Thank you,
Mike Short
Head of local government
