Dear Members,

The Executive Team has presented the UCU with a pay offer, which you will have seen in the email from the President sent yesterday. You will be aware we issued an update on the negotiating team’s position on the pay offer to all faculty. Today we wish to communicate further details to you, our members, and ask you to vote on the current offer and our position.  

While our request for an 11.99% uplift was ambitious, it was fair (see our pay claim). We argue the current offer of 1.25% at a varying scale of 2.1-0.6% for our members, is much too low in the face of rapidly increasing inflation and other dramatic cost-of-living pressures plus our ever-depreciating salaries in comparison with the rest of the sector.  

The Executive Team’s pay offer also refers to potential pay uplifts of 7-15% for faculty via progression: They have chosen to focus a minimal budget on rewarding a few faculty members on an applied for, and selective, progression on a pay scale to mitigate against the derisorily low universal variable pay uplift in their offer. We want to emphasize that it is likely that most who apply for progression will not be successful as the budget allocation will not cover progression for the majority of applicants. As a union we advocate for a fair and equitable pay rise for all: Our pay claim asks for all faculty to receive a meaningful increase to their pay – not only a select few. 

It is the Branch Committee’s recommendation that the current pay offer should be rejected. We believe that it does not begin to address the issues raised in our pay claim, especially the extent to which our pay has been devalued over the past 5 years in comparison to the rest of the HE sector. At the upper levels, faculty at Richmond are paid close to £10,000 less than colleagues at other comparable HE institutions. We want a flat-rate pay solution that begins to address these inequities with the sector across all pay levels, and the historical pay devaluation.  

We have a third negotiating meeting on June 7th. We would like to hear your response to this initial pay offer.  

Do you support the Branch Committee’s recommendation to reject the initial pay offer?  

Please complete the poll using the above link, before Monday 9pm, so we can bring your views to the Executive Team.  

At the end of the negotiations (expected to be mid-June), all members will have the opportunity to vote on the final offer. While we hope that meaningful negotiation with the Executive Team will produce a more reasonable offer, as a union, working together, we will also have the opportunity to consider other actions to press our point if we don’t believe we have been given a fair deal. As a union, we have the strength to demand better pay. 

Richmond’s employees are its most valuable resource, and we deserve recognition of this in a meaningful pay uplift. We know faculty and staff are suffering hardships because of poor pay and we believe it is time that the Executive Team prioritize and invest in its employees. Please make your voice heard. 

If you have any questions, concerns or would like to get more involved please contact us. 

Dear Faculty, 

Following on from the President’s email on Pay 2022-23 (see University Pay Offer 2022-23), sent 30 May, we would like to update all faculty on UCU’s current position on the pay offer and ongoing negotiations. 

Since forming as a Branch last year, pay has been a key priority raised by UCU members. The universal pay uplift of 11.99% contained in our pay claim was supported unanimously by members in a vote. As a result, UCU submitted our pay claim on 25th April. (To see the UCU Pay Claim and the research supporting it, see here.) 

The 11.99% uplift to all faculty’s income addresses the rise in inflation between 2017-2021, the time since our last pay increase of 1%. In account of the University’s financial situation, the UCU’s pay claim did not include loss of income due to soaring inflation in 2022 and the cost-of-living crisis we are all currently experiencing. It is an ambitious claim, but one that is legitimate in the face of our ongoing income devaluation, our poor pay comparable to the other HE institutions, and as an acknowledgement of faculty’s commitment to Richmond and our financial hardships felt over the past five years.

We have met with members of the University Executive Team twice – once to discuss our pay claim, and then to discuss their pay offer.  

The offer shared in President’s email today is unchanged since our last meeting. We expressed strongly at the time that we cannot support it for the following reasons:  

We are all suffering the consequences of inflation, the rise in the cost of living, increases to National Insurance, and more, which must be meaningfully addressed by the Executive Team. 

We expressed concerns that progression on the pay scale is selective and does not apply to the majority of university employees (especially staff who do not have a progression scale). The budget for pay increases privileges faculty progression over a universal pay uplift. This approach will benefit only a select few faculty members based on performance related criteria. Instead, we argue that only a universal pay increase is fair, not a variable, individualised one.  

While we recognise the financial difficulties of the University, we believe that all faculty and staff deserve a reasonable pay uplift. For Richmond to continue to offer leading liberal arts education, it needs to value and invest in its employees by delivering a universal pay uplift and a plan to address income disparities we all face within the HE sector. 

Two further meetings are scheduled for continued negotiation of faculty pay (June 7 and June 13th). We hope that the University will be open to considering alternative solutions that acknowledge and reward all faculty for our dedication to and extraordinary efforts at Richmond. 

UCU members will vote on the University’s pay offer. We would encourage all faculty and staff to join the UCU so you can have your voice heard in these pay negotiations. We are stronger together. (For more information on joining UCU.)