In 2009 management notified UNISON that they were going to discontinue unsocial hours payments. A protection arrangement for existing staff was negotiated which took into account the situation at that time, locally and nationally, in terms of pay. The expectation was that during the transitional period pay would eventually have risen by around 10% which it was hoped would “cushion” the loss of this payment.
Of course all staff would have had the benefit of this projected increase in pay so relative to their colleagues staff working unsocial hours would not be being compensated for it once the protection arrangement expired. Since there have been real-terms pay cuts, let alone a double digit percentage increase, in the time since then UNISON is raising this issue again.
We believe there is still a need to recognise that some staff are being asked to work unsocial hours currently, and may be asked to work more in the future. Therefore management need to negotiate a payment that compensates already low-paid staff for being required to work unsocial hours. We recognise that there were issues with the former system, especially a lack of clarity as to what the payment was and when it was triggered, simply withdrawing the payment did not address this.
We are therefore asking for there to be meaningful negotiations with management to deal with this issue and to agree a payment that will properly compensate low-paid staff who are being asked to work flexibly outside of what most people would regard as core working hours. The University expects to be able to offer services during these times but our members, quite rightly, expect that they will be compensated
for working hours that would be commonly regarded as unsocial.
In the meantime, however, the branch feels strongly that those currently in receipt of enhanced rates AND who are still working unsocial hours, should continue to receive the payments. It is not enough that the Framework Agreement and Harmonisation are held up as a just reason for sticking with the agreement that took place around four years ago when the situation was not looking so grim in terms of pay awards.
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