2020-21 round update
UCEA made a final offer to the unions on 10 July 2020. This was reconfirmed on 5 November:
Final offer 2020-21
On 9 December, UNISON declared a dispute with UCEA over the final offer and initiated the New JNCHES Dispute Resolution process. On 22 December UCU confirmed that it was also in dispute and initiated the Dispute Resolution process. This was followed by GMB doing the same on 12 January 2021.
Dispute meetings were arranged for 12 January and 19 January, with UCU, UNISON and GMB. Unite attended the first meeting as an observer.
Background
2020-21 round meetings
The 2020-21 New JNCHES negotiating round had been due to start on 31 March 2020, with three meetings taking place in total. However, owing to the unprecedented disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, UCEA and the five HE trade unions (EIS, GMB, UCU, UNISON and Unite) agreed to pause the start of the negotiations. Following consultation with UCEA member HEIs in May and June, UCEA proposed a shortened version of the New JNCHES process, as an exception due to the pandemic. However, in doing so, UCEA emphasised its ongoing commitment to national collective bargaining and UCEA's intention to recommence negotiations in 2021-22, subject to that being possible at that time. As such, a single negotiating meeting on pay for 2020-21 was held on 7 July 2020.
Following the 7 July negotiating meeting, on the 8 July Raj Jethwa, UCEA Chief Executive wrote to the Joint Union Side Secretaries to respond to the unions' pay claim.
UCEA's letter to Joint Union Side Secretaries - 8 July 2020
On 10 July, Raj Jethwa wrote to the Joint Union Side Secretaries to clarify the employers' final offer on pay.
UCEA's email to Joint Union Side Secretaries - 10 July 2020
UCEA and the unions agreed to continue to meet to discuss the non-pay items in the unions' joint claim. Meetings were held on 15 September and 5 October 2020.
UCEA and the unions then held an annual "general business" meeting of New JNCHES on 5 November, which was used in part to review the HE sector finances. Prior to that meeting, the employers gave an revised Employers' Statement, with updated financial information (see below).
After the meeting on 5 November, the employers reconfirmed the employers' final offer for 2020-21:
Employers' statement
The employers' statement for 2020-21, from UCEA, was originally presented at the negotiating meeting on 7 July 2020. An updated version was provided by the employers on 4 November:
Employers' statement 2020-21
Joint trade unions' claim
The unions submitted their joint claim for 2020-21 on 19 March 2020:
Trade Unions' Joint Pay Claim 2020-21
List of participating HEIs 20-21
This list of 145 HEIs was shared with the unions at the negotiating meeting on 7 July.
List of participating HEIs 2020-21
