You will have seen, and hopefully voted in, the recent pay consultation. Well, the results are in: nationally, two thirds of those who voted in the consultation, voted to reject the employers’ final offer, which fell far short of the claim that Unison put in, and also of inflation (coming after many years of real-terms pay cuts). The results locally, at York St John, were largely in line with this, with 64% voting to reject.
The result is that the Higher Education Service Group will be organising a national ballot on industrial action, which is likely to take place in either late September or October.
It is vitally important that we get a good turnout for this. Recent changes to the law mean that however many vote to reject, we won’t be able to take action if we don’t get a high-enough turnout (this has already hit a PCS pay campaign, despite an 86% vote to reject).
- Official ballots have to be by post, to your home address, so please make sure that Unison has your correct details
- You can check this by going to https://my.unison.org.uk (you may need to register), or contact us at unison@yorksj.ac.uk
- Please speak to your colleagues, and encourage them to vote.
- Encourage them to join Unison if they’re not already members – they can do this at https://join.unison.org.uk/
We are expecting to hear soon that universities will start paying out on their offer, following advice from UCEA, the employers’ association. They are trying to buy us off, but let’s see this as just the first instalment. We deserve so much more.