2020 support staff pay agreement

The University is pleased to confirm that, following recent conversations between the University and Support Staff Trade unions (Unison, Unite and GMB), and recognising that staff at the lowest end of the pay spine are likely to be disproportionately affected by increases in costs of living and the financial impact of the pandemic, we have reached an agreement for the 2020 pay offer for support staff.

All support staff will receive an increase of 1.25% of salary with effect from 1 March 2021. You can view a copy of the support staff salary scale here.

Support staff will also receive a non-pensionable bonus equivalent to 1.25% of their basic salary for the period 1 August 2020 to 28 February 2021.  The bonus will be based on annual basic salary as at 28 February 2021, and applied pro rata to hours and period worked where applicable and will be for employees who were either in post or who have started since 1 August 2020 and are still employed on 1 March 2021.

This agreement ensures that University staff will continue to be paid at least the Voluntary Living Wage for the sixth consecutive year, with our lowest paid staff seeing an increase to £9.55 an hour, which is higher than the £9.50 an hour recently recommended by the Living Wage Foundation.

Full details of all the changes to each pay spine can be found on the intranet. The pay increase and bonus will appear in March salaries.

Whilst discussions on the pay review were delayed due to the impact of the pandemic, the University is very pleased that we have been able to reach an agreement with the Support Staff Trade Unions.  We now look forward to working with them on reforming the Support Staff pay spine, a longstanding aim of both the Trade Unions and the University, which has regrettably also been delayed due to the pandemic.