We reported on the NJC Pay Offer for 2023/24 in our latest news article of 24th February.
The NJC Unions ( Unite, GMB, Unison) met with the National Employers on 8th March and sought a ‘significant improvement’ to the £1,925% headline offer'. The National Employers rejected the unions’ request and reaffirmed their offer as full and final.
- UNISON has announced a ballot for industrial action, whilst GMB and Unite members will be consulted on the basis of a recommendation that the offer be rejected. The UNISON ballot is due to get underway until mid/late May to allow for member data record cleansing in order to ensure it meets its legal obligations of conducting an industrial action ballot. UNISON has also confirmed it will be balloting on a disaggregated basis. This means that action could be taken at each individual council/school where a turn-out of over 50% is secured (if members vote in favour of strike action). If UNISON meets the threshold for lawful industrial action to take place, its timetable means such action may not start until September a very lengthy delay leading to many months of uncertainty for employers and employees.
- The GMB has announced it will conduct a consultative ballot of its members with a recommendation that the offer is rejected. It will explain that by rejecting the offer, its members will be indicating their willingness to participate in future industrial action. GMB’s consultation is likely to run for six weeks from the end of March 2023. If its recommendation is supported by its members, it is likely a formal industrial action ballot would follow.
- Unite has announced it will recommend rejection of the offer by stating, “Local government employers need to enter into full pay negotiations and make a decent pay offer if industrial action is to be avoided.” Unite’s consultation is also likely to run for six weeks from the end of this month.
Despite the prospect of a lengthy delay before this year’s pay can be settled, the National Employers advise very strongly against imposing the pay offer before the collective bargaining process has concluded. Wider legal issues such as those arising out of the cases of Kostal UK Limited v Dunkley must be considered. In Kostal UK Ltd v Dunkley and others [2021] UKSC 47, the Supreme Court held that an employer breached section 145B of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 when it made direct offers to its employees when the agreed procedure for collective bargaining had not been exhausted, in this case, each employee involved was awarded a statutory amount of £3,800 for each occasion on which they were made a direct offer (this statutory amount has since been increased to £4,554) so bypassing the collective bargaining process can be an extremely expensive mistake for employers.
HR customers can access full details on our website.
