Following on from recent announcements, the local government services and school teachers' pay awards have now been agreed.
Printable copies of the information below are available here - Local Government Services Pay Agreement 2020-21 and School
Teachers' Pay Agreement 2020-21
Local Government Services Pay Agreement 2020-21
Pay
Agreement has now been reached between National Employers and the NJC (National Joint Council) Trade Union Side on the rates of pay from 1 April 2020.
The Council’s local pay and grading structure has been updated accordingly to reflect the 2.75% increase to all rates and allowances and a copy has been published on the
Payroll & Pension Liaison Service Resources page on BSO. The pay award will be processed in October 2020, backdated to 1 April 2020.
Any employees who have left employment after 1 April 2020, but prior to the pay award being processed in October will also be paid their back pay in October 2020.
Annual Leave
The NJC has also agreed that minimum annual leave will increase from 1 April 2020 from 21 days to 22 days.
The Council’s annual leave entitlements are covered by local collective agreements incorporated into the terms and conditions of individual employees. Up until now, annual leave entitlements have always been in excess of the minimum annual leave entitlements
set out in the National Agreement. The Council also provides one additional day's paid annual leave (occasional/floating day) each year and this is included in the annual leave entitlements.
The only employee group impacted by this change are ‘Officers’ on Band 6 SCP11 or below, with less than 5 years’ service. For avoidance of doubt, employees should refer to their contract of employment to establish their employee group.
For school based support staff, this will impact on the term time adjustment factors for this employee group only. As a result, the pro-rated salary will be slightly increased to allow for the additional day of annual leave.
If your school uses Bradford Council’s Payroll & Pension Liaison Service, the salaries for this group of employees will be automatically increased from 1 April 2020, to ensure compliance with the National Agreement. Therefore, you do not need to take any
action as all of the above will be implemented automatically.
The updated term time factors can be located
Payroll & Pension Liaison Service Resources page on BSO.
‘Real Living Wage’
At the full Council meeting on 20th February 2020, the Council voted to implement the current level of the Living Wage Foundation voluntary living wage rate (which is £9.30 per hour) for the 2020-21 Financial year only. This will only impact on
any employee paid on SCP1 or equivalent, as the NJC rate of pay for SCP1 from April 2020 is £9.25.
The Council did not commit to pay any future annual pay award increases on this living wage rate or to pay this voluntary wage rate in future years.
The Council’s school funding team issued guidance to schools earlier this year on this decision and therefore the living wage rate will already be factored into school budgets and the cost will need to be met from schools already delegated budgets.
We are now working to introduce the Council’s resolution in schools on the same basis. For pay equality reasons, as the Council implements a £9.30 per hour living wage rate for non-school staff, community and voluntary controlled schools are required to
implement this. This is because, for these schools, the Council is the employer.
All other types of maintained school (voluntary aided, trust and foundation) and academies, and other providers (including Further Education settings) would not be required per se to implement this, as Bradford Council is not the employer. However, there
potentially would be a ‘moral’ pressure to do so, and also ‘market forces’ may necessitate this and the Council would encourage implementation.
The Council will shortly be writing to head teachers and schools business managers to formally advise of this resolution, the next steps and timescales for implementation.
Please note that the ‘real living wage’ rate
will not be implemented in schools until governing bodies have formally adopted the decision to implement it.
Should you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact your HR / Payroll contact.
School Teachers’ Pay Agreement 2020-21
The Department for Education (DfE) has published the 2020 version of the
School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD). This was laid before Parliament on 23 September 2020 and will come into force on 14 October 2020.
The Government accepted the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) recommendation in its entirety;
- a 5.5% increase to the minimum of the main pay range (MPR).
- an increase of 2.75% to the maximum of the MPR and the minima and maxima of all other pay and allowance ranges for teachers and school leaders
- the reintroduction of advisory pay points on the MPR and UPR from September 2020.
The proposed change to the STPCD for additional payments (widening the exclusion of additional payments for teachers on the leadership range) has been dropped from the final order, as this would reduce the pay flexibilities for a significant number of schools.
Further information can be found on the
LGA website.
The updated pay scales have been published on the
Payroll & Pension Liaison Service Resources page on BSO. For the first time since 2014, advisory pay points have been published for the main and upper pay ranges. The Council’s local pay structure has maintained the differential between the points, rather
than just applying increases to the minima and maxima, therefore no assimilation activity should be required.
As the Local Government Services pay award is being processed in October, the teachers’ pay award will be processed in November 2020, backdated to 1 September 2020.
Should you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact your HR / Payroll contact.