PAY CLAIM FOR [INSERT YEAR]

SUBMITTED BY UNISON TO [NAME OF ORGANISATION]

1. INTRODUCTION

This pay claim is submitted by UNISON on behalf of staff working for [organisation].

The claim is set at a level that we believe recognises the following key points:

  • Major increases in the cost of living over recent years have significantly reduced the value of staff wages;
  • Appropriate reward is needed to sustain the morale and productivity of staff in their crucial role of delivering high quality services;
  • Appropriate reward is needed for the increased workload and stress placed on staff against a background of major budget cuts;
  • Average pay settlements across the economy have been running ahead of those received by [organisation] staff over recent years, increasing the likelihood of recruitment and retention problems in the long term;
  • Increased vacancy rates across the economy make a competitive wage rate ever more crucial;
  • Nobody should be paid less than the nationally recognised Living Wage rate, which has become a benchmark for the minimum level of decent pay across the UK and is now paid by large sections of the public services and many major private companies.

2. SUMMARY OF CLAIM

We are seeking:

  • A[__%]increase on all salary points and allowances
  • An additional increase in rates for staff at the bottom of the pay scale to bring their pay up to the level of the Living Wage.
  • [Any other additions to payments or improvement to conditions – UNISON guides on typical additional components are available on these links: Unsocial hours paymentsLeave and pay for working parents Hours and leave London allowancesMotor allowances]

3. FALLING VALUE OF PAY

The table below demonstrates the major fall in living standards suffered by staff over recent years.

[Organisation]pay increases / Rise in cost of living[1]
(as measured by Retail Prices Index)
2010 / [Insert pay rise] / 4.6%
2011 / [Insert pay rise] / 5.2%
2012 / [Insert pay rise] / 3.2%
2013 / [Insert pay rise] / 3.0%
2014 / [Insert pay rise] / 2.4%
2015 / [Insert pay rise] / 1.0%
2016 / [Insert pay rise] / 1.8%
2017 / [Insert pay rise] / 3.6%

This means that, while the cost of living has risen by 27.6% over the last eight years, pay in [organisation]has risen by just [x%], which means that thousands of pounds have been cut out of the value of staff wages [if you need assistance in calculating the actual loss on some example salaries, contact Bargaining Support on ]

Latest inflation figures have now hit 3.6% and Treasury forecasts indicate that the cost of living is set to average 3.6% throughout 2018, followed by four further years of inflation running at 3% or above, in line with the graph below.

Source: HM Treasury, Forecasts for the UK Economy,February 2018

4. FALLING BEHIND AVERAGE PAY RATES

The ability of [organisation] to attract and retain support staff in the long term will be damaged if the pay of its staff falls behind the going rate in the labour market.

The table below shows that pay settlements over the last year across the economy have been running at 2.5%, which stands in contrast to the most recent [organisation] settlement of [x%].

A sample of economic sectors that can provide alternative career options for [organisation] staff shows that pay settlements are running at the rates shown below.

Sector / Average pay settlements
Across economy / 2.5%
Private sector / 2.5%
Public sector / 1.4%
Not for profit / 1.9%
Energy & gas / 2.7%
Water & waste management / 2.0%
Retail & wholesale / 2.5%
Information & communication / 2.0%
Admin & support services / 2.4%
Source: Labour Research Department, settlements year to March 2018

[Amend this table to show the sectors most relevant to staff within the organisation]

[If you need assistance in showing a comparison with a more specific group of workers, contact Bargaining Support at ]

Year / Private / Not for profit / [Organisation]pay increases
2010 / 2.0% / 1.0% / [Insert pay rise]
2011 / 2.7% / 2.0% / [Insert pay rise]
2012 / 2.8% / 1.8% / [Insert pay rise]
2013 / 2.5% / 2.0% / [Insert pay rise]
2014 / 2.5% / 2.0% / [Insert pay rise]
2015 / 2.4% / 2.0% / [Insert pay rise]
2016 / 2.0% / 1.5% / [Insert pay rise]
2017 / 2.2% / 2.0% / [Insert pay rise]

[It may also be useful to highlight how pay in the organisation has fallen behind private or not-for-profit sector pay settlement averages over a sustained period using the table above]

In order to remain competitive with wages across the economy during 2018, [organisation]will need to keep up with average pay settlements that are expected to average 3.1% over the year, according to the Bank of England[2].

5. LIVING WAGE BECOMING STANDARD MINIMUM PAY BENCHMARK

The Living Wage has become a standard benchmark for the minimum needed for low-paid staff to have a “basic but acceptable” standard of living.

[Organisation]is now competing in a labour market where the Living Wage of £8.75 an hour outside London and £10.20 an hour in London has become an increasingly common minimum point in the pay scale.

Studies supported by Barclays Bank have shown that Living Wage employers report an increase in productivity, a reduction in staff turnover / absenteeism rates and improvements in their public reputation.

Consequently, there are now over 3,500 employers accredited as Living Wage employers by the Living Wage Foundation, including some of the largest private companies in the UK, such as Barclays, HSBC, IKEA and Lidl.

Across the public sector, the Scotland government has established the Living Wage within all its public sector organisations, minimum rates for NHS and Further Education College staff in Wales have been raised to the Living Wage and all UK universities have established the Living Wage rate (for staff on a 35-hour week) in the most recent pay settlements. Support staff in more than 12,000 schools across the UK are also set to be paid the Living Wage as a result of national agreements.

Furthermore, even where national agreements have not achieved a Living Wage settlement, a major proportion of individual councils, NHS trusts, schools and academies have taken up the Living Wage on their own initiative. A UNISON Freedom of Information survey covering local government, the NHS, universities, further education colleges and police authorities that drew over 900 responses found that 51% of employers across these sectors already pay at least the Living Wage to their lowest paid staff.

[A listing of accredited Living Wage employers is published here and may be useful for developing a list of organisations most relevant for highlighting as relevant for this pay claim]

[For more detailed guidance if you wish to expand on arguments for the Living Wage, see the UNISON guide here– this includes further material on the damaging impact for employers of low pay, dispelling confusion with the government’s “national living wage” and cascading benefits up the pay scale].

6. RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION PRESSURES BUILDING

With the unemployment rate at its lowest level in 43 years and vacancies escalating across the economy, competitive wage rates are becoming ever more crucial.

The general unemployment rate has been in decline from a peak of 8.5% in 2011 to 4.3% over the three months to January 2018, while the number of unemployed people per vacancy has fallen from 5.8 to 1.8 over the same period.

Unemployment rates are forecast to remain around current levels over the next two years, averaging 4.4% in 2018[3] and 4.5% in 2019.

[If you can obtain figures for the organisation showing an increase in the vacancy rate (the number of vacant posts divided by the total number of posts in the organisation) set them out here.

Median turnover rates are estimated at 19.4% across the economy[4], so if you have figures on turnover rates (calculated by taking the total number of leavers in a specified period - usually 12 months - and expressing the number as a percentage of the number of people employed during that period) that indicate the organisation is suffering higher than average turnover, insert them here. [For information on turnover rates in specific sectors, contact Bargaining Support at

7. MORALE UNDER THREAT

Working against a background of budget cuts, staff have been facing greater workload pressures. The resulting increased stress puts the morale of the workforce at risk and poses a long term threat to [organisation’s]ability to provide a consistent quality of service.

[Set out any evidence you can gather on the following factors

  • Increasing demands on the service;
  • Reductions in staffing;
  • Staff feeling greater stress;
  • Staff suffering falling morale;
  • The impact of these pressures showing themselves in rising sickness absence, higher staff turnover or declining service standards

It is in this area that a short survey of staff may provide the most valuable material to support the evidence. An amendable basic pay survey is set out in appendix two below]

Analysis by the Social Market Foundation has shown workers in the public sector and the energy sector are experiencing some of the highest levels of stress across the economy. You may be able to pick out the figures for relevant sectors taken from page 9 of its 2016 Working Well report ]

8. AFFORDABILITY

The affordability of this claim is clear from the latest [organisation]accounts, which show a surplus of[£_] for 2016/17.

We also note the affordability of an [x%]pay rise for the chief executive, taking [his/her] total remuneration to [£_]

[For the accounts of a private or community / voluntary organisation, contact Bargaining Support at ]

9. CONCLUSION

There can be no doubt that all [organisation]staff have seen the value of their earnings fall considerably over recent years and evidence suggests that they are also falling behind pay settlements for comparable jobs.

Combined with these developments, the last year has seen intensified pressures placed on staff at the same time as greater job choices are opening up for staff in an improving labour market.

Therefore, this pay claim represents a very reasonable estimate of the reward staff deserve for their dedication, skill and hard work and the minimum improvement in pay needed to maintain workforce morale for delivering consistently high quality services.

Appendix 1 - ADVICE ON DRAWING UP A PAY CLAIM

Introduction

The guidance below is intended to assist branches and members who are involved in local pay negotiations with putting together a pay claim. The model agreement above provides a framework for a claim, but this guidance seeks to offer supplementary advice on tailoring the claim to a particular employer.

Planning

Plan a timeline and the process for assembling and submitting a pay claim well in advance of the date of submission. Each employer will run their own yearly pay cycle (e.g. from April to April), so the first step is find out when this is. It is advisable to start your pay claim around three months in advance of the annual settlement date. Such a timescale will give you time to consult fully with your members and survey them if you feel this would be of benefit to your claim.

Collecting Information

The aim of the pay claim is to achieve an uplift in pay for all employees in order to maintain or improve the value of earnings. Other criteria you may want to consider putting into a pay claim include:

  • If your employer isn’t already a Living Wage employer, you may want to promote the Living Wage as a minimum floor of payment in your organisation;
  • Equal pay – making sure that all people doing the same job are paid the same;
  • Benchmarking pay with similar employers in your region;
  • Gender pay gap reporting.

Data to be used in the pay claim can take some time to pull together. As mentioned before your best source of information is your members. Consider conducting a short survey using programmes like Surveymokey or Typeform to gather rich data on issues experienced in the workplace. Surveys are also a good way of collecting quotes and examples to use in your pay claim.

Always remember to emphasise to your members that the survey is completely anonymous and always make sure that the data you submit to the employer protects your members’ identities. Examples of a short member’s survey are in appendix 2 of this guidance. Membership lists should be checked before any survey is sent out to make sure that the link goes out to members only.

Intelligence gathering may also include reviewing the annual report and accounts of your employer and if you work in some sectors, for example Health or Education, there will be minutes of board meetings that are published on the employer’s website. These are always a rich source of data and will often indicate if an employer is having financial issues, or other problems that may mean that they are not in a position to pay an uplift.

It can be harder to find financial reports for private companies without subscribing to financial database websites like Endole. UNISON’s bargaining support team has access to the financial reports of most private companies and upon request we can email branches a copy of this report. Any branches wishing to use this service should email bargaining support at . Most private companies with shareholders will publish their annual report on their websites. These can include information on staffing costs (permanent and agency), the number of staff employed by the organisation and Director’s remuneration.

Another area to run a quick search on whilst gathering data for your pay claim is the news. Branches can run a quick Google news search on their employer. Often this will bring up any stories connected to your employer, including financial stories and any stories around litigation.

Information in the Claim

The information in a pay claim will vary depending on what sector you work in and what information is available to you. In determining and developing themes for a structured pay claim, standard areas to look at include:

  • Inflation rates – Inflation is the rate of increase in the price of goods and services. Inflation is one of the most important economic factors to consider in a pay claim, as inflation determines what rate we receive on any savings we have and for some employees it will impact on how much they will pay out each month on their mortgage. It also has an impact on pensions.
  • The most commonly quoted rate of measurement for inflation in the media is the Consumer Price Index (CPI). UNISON is campaigning to maintain the Retail Prices Index (RPI) as the truest measure of inflation as this includes housing costs and it remains the most common reference point for pay bargaining.
  • Four year forecasts on inflation can be found on the Bank of England website here;
  • Previous pay awards – It is always advantageous to have the previous five years pay awards to use in any pay claim. Your employer should be able supply you with this data;
  • Turnover projections – check annual report;
  • Productivity gains – These are sometimes set out in the annual report, for example if the employer has introduced new ways of working or technology;
  • Annual accounts – often published on the employer’s website;
  • Staff surveys – As explained previously in this factsheet, the information you receive from members, will be valuable to your pay claim;
  • Director’s pay awards – More often than not these are published in the annual accounts;
  • Pay bill and gender breakdown – Pay bill information can be sourced from the employer’s annual accounts. Advice on the gender pay gap publication requirements for England, Wales and Scotland are set out here;
  • Average house prices and rental costs in the region you work in – bargaining support regularly update the factsheet on London Allowances which can be found here. This factsheet contains average house price and rental rises across the UK;
  • Cost of travel in your region;
  • Average cost of childcare –The Family and Childcare Trust run an annual survey where they publish average childcare costs across the whole of the UK;
  • Benchmarking pay in your sector / region – Bargaining Support have access to Labour Research Department’s database of average sector pay rises. Please contact if you wish to make use of this service.
  • The Living Wage – If you have decided to make a case for your employer to pay the living wage, UNISON’s Living Wage Campaign and the Living Wage Foundation has further information on the benefits of paying the Living Wage and also a list of companies who have already become Living Wage accredited employers.

Structure of the pay claim

Be clear on what you are asking your employer for. It is always advisable to start with an introduction, which identifies who the pay claim has been submitted by and on behalf of what group of staff. This is particularly important if your employer recognises more than one trade union for the purposes of bargaining on behalf of different groups of staff.