On 21 April, we met with members of the University Executive Team (UET) and Staff Reps for our second pay negotiation meeting, and we are deeply disappointed. The UET shared their ‘pay offer’ with us (see Pay offer 19 April 2023). As Phil said in the Townhall on 17 April, the University still has no money but he and UET are working on ways to improve this situation. Until then the 2% overall budgeted pay increase for all staff outlined at an earlier Townhall this year is all that is currently on the table, and it is unclear how it will be distributed.  

We are very unhappy with the offer and the contents of the document as we feel it does not constitute a meaningful offer either to increase our pay or redress the imbalance Richmond Faculty face in regards to wider HE sector pay.  

We responded to the offer expressing our disappointment and frustration. We also reported how dissatisfied our members are with the ongoing pay situation at Richmond. We shared a brief overview of the findings from the survey UCU conducted on pay in March (see UCU Pay Survey Key Findings – Executive Summary). 

We will have an open meeting for all employees (faculty and staff) Tuesday, 25 April, from 12:00-13:00. This meeting will be a hybrid meeting hosted in meeting rooms F01/F02 and online on Teams for those not on Chiswick campus. We will discuss our options in more detail, and we look forward to hearing your views.