Showing posts with label hera. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hera. Show all posts

Friday, August 24, 2007

HERA Appeals

Just to remind you that the closing date for Hera appeals is next Friday 31st.

At the moment the Hera team will accept filled in application forms without the pre-appeal meeting having taken place - This does NOT mean that it doesn't happen merely a reflection of how difficult it has been to fit it all in within the timescale.

Already some "appeals" have been won - these are due to inconsistencies being highlighted at Joint Union and Hera team meetings - this will continue.

The first appeal panels have also been organised for 20th and 21st September and more will be arranged.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

The Framework Agreement

This agreement is split into two parts – job evaluation and conditions of service:

JOB EVALUATION AND EQUAL PAY (HERA)
A job evaluation study, using the HERA process, was undertaken so there is now a single wage structure within the university.
Under the new single structure, people’s jobs have been evaluated. Those people whose jobs were found to have been undervalued have been “green-circled” and placed on their new, higher, rate.

• Those who are matched to a job which is lower than their provisional match have been “red-circled” and have their current salary preserved for up to 4 years.
• Those of you who are matched to the same salary range means that you will transfer from the current structure to the new grade structure.

Red Circled Posts
• As of 27th March there are a total of 14 red circled posts
• There are 11 posts to be re-organised
• There are 9 with a market supplement
• There are another three posts under review
• There is one new role
• There is one role with an acting up allowance


THE APPEALS PROCEDURE
• If the staff member wishes to challenge the HERA evaluation he or she may raise an appeal if one or both of the following criteria are met:
• ‘the job content has significantly changed since the date of the last evaluation’ and/or
• ‘that the immediate manager and/or Head of School/Service has not followed the procedures correctly.

JOB EVALUATION AND EQUAL PAY
• We are not pretending that this agreement necessarily delivers equal pay, which is the employer’s responsibility to ensure. However, we consider that implementing this system makes it much more likely that we can tackle any equal pay issues.
• Our aim is to implement a system which supports equal pay, within our overall framework of doing the best that we can for all members and minimising where possible the undermining of previously negotiated terms and conditions.


THE NATIONAL FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT
• The whole purpose of the Framework Agreement is to bring all staff groups into a single framework for pay and conditions of service and thereby eliminate inequitable practices. The Framework is not just about new pay rates. It is also about changing a number of working practices which could undermine the Framework’s objectives

It is, therefore, proposed that the following conditions be harmonised for all staff :
• Implement the new grading structure and grade boundaries.
• Assimilation to the new grading structure on the 1st August 2006 and their annual incremental date (unless they are at the top of the grade) will be 1st August. The first incremental date will be on the 1st August 2007.
• Market supplements will continue, using the agreed revised Market Pay Policy.
• Overtime rates - a common denominator of 1/260th should be used for the calculation of an hourly rate
• All staff on Grade F and above are required to give a minimum of three months notice in writing. Staff on other grades will continue to be required to give one month’s notice.
• Once all roles have been assigned to the new pay grading structure with effect from 1.8.06, we will implement a review procedure.
• All support staff have 25 days annual leave, rising to 30 days after 5 years continuous service at UEL. All staff has the same leave year from 1st September 2007. i.e. from 31st August – 1st September.
• All staff would be paid on the last Thursday of each month with the exception of December, when it is paid on the 3rd Thursday of the month.
For support staff, however, there are two points which are a major change in our conditions, i.e. the change of pay date (from the middle to the end of the month) and the change of the date on which the incremental rise is paid. For anyone whose grade under the HERA process has been equated to their current grade, and who is not at the top of the grade, they will not receive an incremental rise in April 2007; they will have to wait until August 2007.
We have, however, negotiated a payment of £500 for support staff and two additional day’s holiday (applicable after 5 years service). This payment is for the acceptance of the package as a whole.


WHY AMICUS IS RECOMMENDING THE DEAL

One collective agreement can’t change everything that is unfair about our pay and conditions. However, we consider that in the circumstances, we have been able to strike a deal which is to the advantage of the majority of our members and starts to address equal pay issues. On this basis, we recommend it to you.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Hera Update

At long last the end is in sight - a reply from management basically agreeing to our proposals - The joint support staff unions are meeting together to dot the I's and cross the t's but basically all support staff will get a minimum payment of £500 and those on long service will have their leave increased to 30 days.

As a condition we have to agree to move our pay date to the last Thursday of the month as well as adopt a common incremental date and leave year.

The red circles are reducing daily - we reckon they are now around 20 - the last panel is tomorrow afternoon. There are around 200 people who are green circled - these people will get their pay, backdated to August 2006, in June subject to agreement


We have a branch meeting on Wednesday evening at 6.30 where this will be discussed and we will arrange a group meeting next Wednesday afternoon - 28th- to go through it in greater detail - we will then move to the balloting process. The agreement will be sent to our national officer for scrutiny and the ballot will be organised by our regional officer - Richard Munn.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Red Circle Watch

Currently the red circles are getting to be a rare breed - from last weeks meeting we have re-scored and re-evaluated several roles.


52

Friday, February 16, 2007

Red Circle Watch

72


This site will update as we reduce the number of red circles in the hera scheme



16/02/02

Huge Efforts Reach Agreement

The next meeting of the Hera group is next Tuesday on 20th February. Having reduced the number of red circled posts down - so far - to 72 (from 335) we are confident that this part of the process is drawing to a close.

The new grading boundaries and tweaks of the scoring criteria seem to have benefitted the low paid and although this has been a long drawn out process we seem to be on target to ensure the completion of the project.

Parallel with this is the framework terms and conditions and we are still a long way from reaching agreement with management but we are still confident of getting the support side unions together to resist the change of pay date and other awkward terms. A fuller explanation of thios will be made at the next Branch meeting on Wednesday but I also hope to get a local meeting in the very near future but that may be after the 28th - management have held that date for teh conclusion of the framework negotaitions. As always more details can be obtained from either Nick or myself.