2025 NJC Pay Claim Branch Consultation
The UNISON NJC Committee met on 20 November 2024 to consider the contents of the NJC pay claim for 2025. This cost of living pay award is due from 1 April 2025.
The 2024 pay settlement
For NJC 2024, we submitted a claim for an increase £3,000 or 10%, whichever was the greater. The Employers offered an increase of £1,290, pro rata’d for part-time and term time only workers. As members know, that offer was ultimately accepted and implemented because we did not get over 50% strike thresholds in enough branches – but UNISON made clear that formal acceptance of the offer did not indicate that members were satisfied with it.
The NJC Committee is therefore proposing that our claim for 2025 should seek an increase that is above inflation, addresses the particular continuing challenges for those towards the bottom end of the pay spine, and enables members to begin to recover the loss of the real terms value of their pay that has occurred over the last decade.
The 2025 pay claim – proposed headlines
The NJC Committee proposes that the 2025 pay claim is for an increase of £3,000 on all pay points, along with a clear ‘roadmap’ to reach a minimum pay rate of £15 an hour.
UNISON members in councils and schools continue to experience a significant cost of living crisis, with food, heating and transport costs continuing to increase. While headline inflation figures have fallen, RPI inflation, the inflation measure which UNISON believes is the most accurate reflection of the spending realities our members face, is currently at 3.4% and is forecast to be at an average of 3.6% over 2025. Meanwhile, we know that on average, members have lost more than a quarter of the real terms value of their pay since 2010.
The NJC Committee is therefore proposing a claim for £3,000 on all pay points, which is above inflation, to ensure the real value of members’ pay does not fall further behind, and begins to catch up on the years of lost earnings.
The claim for a clear move towards a £15 an hour hourly rate is in line with policy agreed at UNISON’s Local Government Conference. Local government pay towards the bottom end is in clear need of a ‘reset’, so that staff are properly rewarded for their work and employers can recruit and retain staff.
The West Sussex branch would like the views of our members on this proposed way forward. Please take part in our quick branch survey! (Link below)