www.aub-unison.org.uk

Further to circular HE 27/11 the result of the pay consultation was that a significant majority of branches agreed to note the offer. UNISON will be writing to the university employers to confirm our position.

We expect that all HE unions will be in a position to accept or note the offer early in the new year and that universities will be able to pay the award in the January pay roll. Details of the full settlement will be sent in the new year.

We are aware that members will be disappointed with the pay award this year, particularly in light of the continued increases in the cost of living.

We will be shortly be working with other unions to draft a claim for the 2012/13 and are determined to campaign for a decent increase for staff in universities that recognises their contribution and matches the increases in the cost of living.

Yours sincerely
Jon Richards
National Secretary
Education and Children's Services

The local branch consultation for the 2011 pay offer has now closed. As the offer was not being recommended for acceptance, members were asked whether they wished to "note" or "reject" the offer. The results in the ballot were as follows:

• NOTE: 86%
• REJECT: 14%

The offer consists of a £150 increase to all pay points and a 0.5% increase London Weighting in post 92 institutions. The offer also includes proposals to:

• Establish a training a development forum in higher education
• Undertake a survey and update joint work on equalities
• Update joint work on pay data with a focus on low pay in the sector

The response rate for the local consultation was 21% of eligible members. The results for the local consultation and ballot will now be sent to the national head office to be collated with all other Higher Education branches. We would expect to hear the result of the national consultation in the next few weeks.

Our competition this year asked members to choose the answer to our word scramble EESITOMTL. The answer was of course "G: MISTLETOE" and everyone picked the right answer with 169 entries overall!

The prize draw was held on Friday morning, with the draw being carried out by our independent adjudicator, Susan Cumming from the RGU School of Nursing.

We are pleased to announce therefore that the winners of the Branch Christmas competition for 2011 were:

• 1st Prize: ASUS EEE Pad TF101 Tablet Computer
  Janice Longhurst, UofA; Roderick Lawman, RGU
• 2nd Prize: Dinner and a Show for Two
  Margaret Doverty, UofA; Hamish Walker, RGU
• 3rd Prize: Jolly Holly Christmas Hamper
  Tracy Bonsall, UofA; Diane Devine, RGU

Congratulations to everyone who won and a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!

• Look out for new competitions next year

We have now received a 'full and final' written pay offer from the national employers' organisation the Universities & Colleges Employers Association (UCEA). This consists of a £150 increase to all pay points and a 0.5% increase London Weighting in post 92 institutions.

The offer also includes proposals to:

• Establish a training a development forum in higher education
• Undertake a survey and update joint work on equalities
• Update joint work on pay data with a focus on low pay in the sector

The employers state that the offer is worth approximately 0.5% of the higher education pay bill. The offer is worth more as a percentage of pay to the lowest paid staff.

UNISON is now consulting on the final pay offer. Please register your vote in the consultation ballot

A big thank you to all the members at The Robert Gordon University who took part in the national day of action over pensions on Wednesday - and a particular thank you to those members who were out there along with other UNISON branches and our sister trade unions on the street and at Castlegate for the rally in Aberdeen.

The key thing about this day was the publicity and media surrounding it, and we certainly achieved an impact both locally and nationally. There were lots of photos from across Scotland being published live on the day on the UNISON Scotland blog – including our branch ones in Aberdeen, which you can see here:

• http://unison-scotland.blogspot.com/

It's now possible to get the latest branch updates on Twitter and Facebook - we'll be posting regular information about what's happening in the branch, so "follow" or "like" us now:

• Facebook: facebook.com/UNISONAUB
• Twitter: twitter.com/UNISONAUB

We'll be posting regular updates, so connect with us today!

Following the decisive yes vote, UNISON's lay activists have given the green light to strike action on 30 November, to protect their pensions.

The union welcomed the theoretical improvements to the pension schemes made by Danny Alexander yesterday, saying that the pressure from UNISON and others had resulted in the Government moving significantly from their original position.

Dave Prentis, General Secretary of UNISON, the UK's largest union, said:

"Today's Yes vote signals the green light for the first day of strike action, and we will be joining with other unions in the TUC co-ordinated day of action on November 30th."

"While there was significant movement from the Government yesterday, at this stage we only have a theoretical pension scheme, that has yet to be translated into scheme offers. We have no offer in either the local government or the health pension schemes that we can put to our members."

"What we do have is a overwhelming yes vote in a legal ballot. And our democratic committees have taken the decision to authorise action with the TUC in line with the wishes of our members.

So it is now up to government ministers and employers‚ to get down to work and come up with firm offers that we can put to our members.

Commenting on The University and Colleges Employer's Association's (UCEA) final offer of a one-off £150 payment, UNISON's Senior National Officer for Education, Jon Richards said:

"This pay offer falls well short of what our members need to survive."

"This will be the third year of insignificant, below inflation, pay in higher education and will hit hardworking staff struggling to cope with the rising cost of living and everyday essentials.

"We will join other higher education unions in further consultation."

UNISON has 50,000 members who work in HE institutions in all jobs including: registrars, librarians, personnel, technicians, academics, administrators, clerks, secretaries, cleaners, craftworkers, catering staff, porters and people working in IT, finance and estates management.

www.unison.org.uk/education/higher

Public service workers from across Aberdeen will join together this week to discuss attacks on their pensions and plans to defend them.

UNISON, Scotland's largest union in public services, together with Unite, GMB and EIS have called the mass meeting on Thursday, July 14, to outline plans to protect members' pension rights. Staff from north-east NHS, police support staff, teachers and local council employees will all be in attendance.

The UK Government is proposing to increase pension contributions by 50 per cent, raise the retirement age and change the way pensions are indexed from RPI to CPI – resulting in a cut of 15 per cent. However, as pension regulation is devolved to the Scottish Parliament, MSPs can choose to reject the UK plans and protect quality pensions in Scotland.

Mike Kirby, UNISON's Scottish Secretary, said: "UNISON is in discussions with both the UK and Scottish governments about its unfair and unnecessary changes to our members' pensions which would see them working longer, paying more and getting less. These changes amount to nothing more than a pensions' tax on public service workers, who are being left to pay the price for bailing out the bankers.

"These proposals would make saving for retirement unaffordable and out of reach for those we most depend on to clean our hospitals, care for the sick and elderly and teach our children."

"The Scottish Government has a choice to make and it's a simple one; reject the UK Government's unfair attack on the pensions of hard-working people and protect quality pension provision for Scotland’s public service workers."

See UNISON Scotland for more info…

A meeting of the UK-wide Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff took place on 26 May.

The higher education employers made an offer of a £100 increase on all pay points for 2011/12.

The offer was rejected by all the higher education trade unions. UNISON recognised the current uncertainty in the higher education sector but stated that, against a backdrop of high inflation, the offer was unacceptable and that this would be the third year of below-inflation pay awards.

The HE employers say that many staff continue to receive a pay increase through pay increments.

UNISON stated that this is not the case for many staff and particularly those in the lowest grades that are suffering most from the increases in the cost of living. The unions have asked the employers to reconsider their offer. A further meeting of the Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff will take place in June.

www.unison.org.uk/education/higher