Casualisation in the workplace is experienced where permanent roles are replaced by short-term or casual contracts. We have been reviewing our balance of fixed-term and hourly paid contracts across the University against our business needs and have taken steps to make more employment opportunities more secure for colleagues. 

As an example, since 2019 we have reduced our reliance on Hourly Paid staff (Teaching Support Roles) in favour of fixed-term Pathway 3 teaching colleagues.  

*The 2021-2022 figures reflect the number of HPTs for TB1 and TB2 21-22. The 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 figures reflect the number of HPTs for each academic year.

The overall reduction in HP staff across the institution for 2021, as it stands in Teaching Block 1, is currently 23%. 

HR teams are supporting schools, faculties and divisions to review their reliance on hourly paid contracts and we will continue to identify where fixed-term and permanent roles should be created for sustainable teaching delivery. 

Workload is a challenge across our institution, impacting differently upon individuals depending on the specific demands of each role. We know that issues around workload are critically important to colleagues, and a significant factor in staff wellbeing. There is not a one-stop solution to workload as this needs to be considered at a local level – we are working hard to support schools, faculties and divisions in reviewing and responding appropriately to their local needs as part of the Integrated Planning Process. 

Pay  

We support fair and competitive pay for all of our staff, in recognition of your commitment and hard work, which facilitates our mission as a university. Colleagues received sector pay increases this year in August, as part of the 2021-2022 round of negotiations.    

As part of the negotiations, Universities and Colleges Employers’ Association (UCEA), who are mandated to negotiate pay settlements on behalf of employers, put forward a collective position on pay on behalf of participating HEIs that seeks to maintain competitiveness, is fair and sustainable and which balances affordability across all member institutions. 

The national pay negotiations were concluded in August and the University implemented the nationally agreed salary increases. Colleagues on pay points below spine point 22 of the pay scale received an increase between 1.54% and 3.6%, and pay points at spine point 22 or above received a pay increase of 1.5%. This uplift is in addition to increases arising from incremental progression on the grade structure. 

Staff employed on pay scales Grades A to M also received the increase in their monthly pay for August.  

The outcome offer delivers a fair base pay increase across the sector, with higher base increases for the lower pay points, ranging from 1.5 to 3.6 per cent. We fully support the targeting of higher increases to our colleagues on lower pay, and further demonstrate this with our commitment to paying the Voluntary Living Wage. 

Like all HEIs, we believe the pay uplift carefully balances fairness with affordability and have followed UCEA’s advice to implement the uplifts due from 1 August. 

We are aware that the trade unions who participate in the national pay negotiations have rejected the pay offer. It has become evident following the dispute resolution process that an agreement on a cost of living pay settlement remains unachievable at this time. 

We will continue to work locally with union colleagues on matters relating to pay and conditions that are important to us all including gender and ethnicity pay gaps and security of employment. 

You can read more in our recent Staff intranet news article. 

Real Living Wage implemented

 The University is implementing the Real Living Wage (RLW) with effect from 1 April 2022. This means that every member of staff working for the University will earn a Real Living Wage.

The RLW is the UK wage rate that is voluntarily paid by almost 9,000 UK businesses who believe their staff deserve a wage which meets everyday needs. The wage factors in normal living expenditure (food shopping, utilities) and also unexpected spends, like unplanned dental costs, for example.

The RLW is higher than the government’s minimum, or National Living Wage, and is an independently calculated hourly rate of pay that is based on the actual cost of living. We are proud to be a RLW provider and will continue to offer this wage, which is annually reviewed at a national level.

You can find out more by visiting the Real Living Wage website.

(Any August 2022 University cost of living award will be adjusted to take into account this RLW increase. Incremental pay progression for our staff will be as normal.)

Pensions

We understand how important a good pension is to our staff. It is a key part of the package that makes working at a university attractive, and allows colleagues to plan financially for the future.  

We are pleased that, together with Unison and Unite, we have made very positive changes to the contribution levels in the University of Bristol Group Pension Plan (UBGPP), the pension scheme supporting staff on grade I and below.  

Staff have made it clear to us that the Defined Benefit element of the hybrid Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) (open to all academic staff and those on grade J and above) is very important because of the certainty it provides when planning retirement. 

In 2018, it was disputed as to whether there was a deficit in the USS scheme. We supported the establishment of the Joint Expert Panel to address this issue. As a result of that work, very few people now question whether there is a significant deficit. The dispute now centres on the size of the deficit and how it should be addressed. 

The USS Trustee (who runs the scheme), supported by the government’s Pension Regulator (who acts to protect the current and future viability of pension schemes) is implementing a solution with a number of elements to shore up the scheme: 

• Employees and employers are being asked to pay more, but significantly less than was previously suggested.
• Employers are having to make phased payments over a number of years to eliminate the deficit.
• As a trade-off for these more modest increases in monthly contribution rates, employees are being asked to take a cut in benefits at retirement, ranging from 8% to 18% depending on their circumstances.
• As a second trade-off, the USS Trustee will have some influence over how much individual universities can borrow over future years.

This is not an ideal outcome for employees and employers, but the USS Trustee, supported by the Regulator, insists that the changes are necessary for the long-term sustainability of the scheme. 

All parties are trying to achieve a difficult balancing act. While Bristol and a handful of other universities have said that they can afford to pay more for pensions, most institutions have said that they cannot without significant job losses and cuts to services and investments. We have done our very best to influence the process, but in this context, we are bound by our collective bargaining agreement.