We announced the result of our ballot on pay spine changes earlier this week. On an impressive 54.99% turnout, the yes vote to strike action was 89.63%. UK law around strike action is designed to make it as difficult as possible to get a result, by insisiting on a minimum turnout of 50% and that all votes have to…
Strike ballot opens on Friday As agreed by members in our meeting on 11 May, our strike ballot over pay spine reform, and University management’s insistence on linking it to terms and conditions, opens this coming Friday (26 May). If you are a UNISON support staff member at the University of Birmingham, you should receive…
UNISON’s National Executive Council elections open on Monday 17 April. All UNISON members who joined before the 17 January are eligible to vote and you should expect to receive a voting pack to your registered home address, including details of the candidates and a prepaid return envelope. We’d encourage all members to vote in this very important set of elections…
What is going on with pay reform at the University? Staff at the University of Birmingham will have seen the news that union members have rejected the University’s latest offer on support staff pay reform. There is a lot of misinformation about why this decision was made and where the responsibility lies if the negotiations…
Our annual general meeting took place yesterday – it was great to see so many members playing a part in the democratic life of the branch. Officer elections Eight members were elected to the committee for the next year! We’ll be updating the website soon with the details of new officers and their roles. Committee…
On 17 February UNISON members passed a motion calling for urgent improvements to the University’s offer on pay spine reform (and changes to conditions). This gave University management until the start of this week to come back to us. Unfortunately they have confirmed that they are not willing to negotiate at this stage. While this…
University releases proposals on support staff pay (and conditions) The University has released what they describe as their final offer on support staff pay. All trade unions are now moving to consult their members on the proposals. The committee’s view on them is that while generous for some staff, there remain significant issues with the…
What is the pay spine and what are the discussions for? The structure of grades and points is how our pay is organised. Our yearly pay talks mostly involve increasing everyone’s pay by a percentage, but the pay spine talks are more nuanced and include negotiating the pay people begin on, how quickly they move…
Update 10.06.2022 – we’ve received an *updated* offer from the University. This is summarised below and can be also be seen in full in PDF format. While pay negotiations at the University of Birmingham started differently this year, we are now ending up in a very similar position to the Universities who remain in national…
Update 07.09.21 – Additional point added on areas where face coverings are required As September begins we find ourselves in a broadly similar situation to last year – coming out of a summer where restrictions have been minimal into a new academic year, in which the key driver seems to be to keep things as…
