2026/27 NJC Pay Claim Submitted

June 2026

NJC Pay 2026 Update

NJC Industrial Action Ballot

Following receipt of the full and final offer of 3.3% for council and school workers in England and Cymru, UNISON’s committee of leading activists have decided to ballot members for strike action.

The ballot will run in a selected number of target employers from 9 July until 6 August.

Members under NJC Pay in Ealing will be balloted. Look out for a purple envelope coming to your home address from 9th July!

UNISON will be recommending that members being balloted vote YES for strike action

Please make sure your contact details ( home address, email address, phone number) are up to date by contacting the branch at Ealingunison@ealing.gov.uk

You can also log in to your MyUnison account and check/update your details this way

MyUnison Login

Find out more about the Pay Ballot here

2026/27 NJC Pay Claim Submitted

Unison and the joint Trade Unions submitted our 2026/27 NJC pay claim to the employer’s side yesterday, 1st December.

Our headline claim is for an increase of at least £3,000 or 10% (whichever is greater) and a minimum of £15 an hour.

In addition, we are asking for:

• One extra day of annual leave for all staff

• A reduction in the working week by two hours, with no loss of pay

• The ability for school staff to take [at least] one day of their annual leave during term time, with no loss of pay

• The abolition of Level 1 Teaching Assistant role and instead all Level 1 role holders be moved onto Level 2

Read the full Pay Claim here

It is our hope that in submitting our pay claim on 1st December, it will give us a better opportunity to be able to negotiate meaningfully with the employer’s side and reach agreement by 1st April 2026. The employers will consult on our claim during December and January, and we are urging them to respond to us a s soon as possible.

If you have any questions about the claim, feel free to contact your local Unison rep if you have one in your workplace or email us at Ealingunison@ealing.gov.uk

If you work in a school, you can also contact our schools convenor at Judged@ealing.gov.uk

We are going to do all we can to reach the best settlement possible for you as our members, and we’ll need you to be involved in giving us your views and responding to any consultations or ballots which may come.

NJC Pay 2025/26 Pay Settled

The 2025/26 NJC Pay negotiations have been settled. The final outcome is 3.2% uplift on all pay points, backdated to 1st April 2025.

View the new pay spines here

APTC_Pay_Award_2025_26_Corporate_final_acc3

APTC_Pay_Award_2025_26_Schools_acc3

You can find out more about the pay claim below:

2025/26 Pay claim

NJC Pay 2025/26 Consultative Pay Ballot

Unison launched a consultative ballot on the 3.2% pay offer made by the employer.

Thanks to those of you who took part.

The results are currently being considered by Unison’s NJC pay committee and we will update you on the next steps as soon as they are known.

You can find out more about this year’s pay claim below:

2025/26 Pay claim

2025/26 NJC Pay Offer Received

The NJC employers have made a pay offer in response to our pay claim.

The key points are:

• A 3.2% increase on all pay points, backdated to 1st April 2025

• Rejection of the other elements of the claim on £15 an hour minimum, leave and a reduction of hours in the working week with no loss of pay

The employers have said that this is their full and final offer.

As you will know, UNISON asked for a £3,000 increase on all pay points as well as an additional day of leave, amongst other additional claims.

We would like to hear your views on this offer. Please get in touch by emailing ealingunison@ealing.gov.uk

If you have a Unison workplace rep, you can let them know your views and they will pass that on to us.

We will then feedback our views as a branch to the pay committee who meet on 8th May to discuss how to respond to the offer.

We’ll be in touch with any updates as soon as we have them.

You can read the pay offer here

Emps to NJC TUs pay offer 22Apr25

2025/26 NJC Pay Claim Submitted

UNISON, alongside other unions has submitted a claim for a pay increase of £3,000 on all pay points. This would be pro rata’d for part time and term time only staff.

This claim would begin to reverse the pay depletion that members have suffered under.

In addition, the claims asks for:

A clear plan to reach a minimum pay rate of £15 an hour
One extra day of annual leave for all staff
A reduction in the working week by two hours, with no loss of pay
The ability for school staff to take (at least) one day of their annual leave during term time, with no loss of pay

You can read the full pay claim here

NJC-Pay-Claim-2025-26

You can keep up to date with the pay claim and the employers response at the link below:

Council and School Pay | Campaigns | UNISON National

24/25 NJC Pay Settled

For members under NJC Pay

Dear Ealing Unison members,

Ballot Outcome and settlement of 24/25 Pay Award

Unfortunately, we didn’t reach the 50% turnout threshold here in Ealing or nationally, and nor did we meet the threshold in enough large employers to be able to take industrial action on this year’s pay offer.

As a result, Unison’s national NJC pay committee has reluctantly accepted the offer, and agreement has now been reached with the employers.

Here in Ealing, the offer amounts to an increase of £1,491 (pro-rata for part time staff) on all pay points 1-48, with a 2.5% increase on pay points 49-62. Please see attached a circular outlining the details of the pay award and a table which explains the local percentage increase on each Ealing pay point for your information.

Ealing payroll will implement the pay award in November’s salary. This includes back pay to 1st April and the ongoing monthly uplift.

Thanks to all of you who engaged with this year’s pay claim and took your opportunity to vote.

Please see below the Pay agreement letter and updated Ealing Pay Scales

Pay Agreement GLPC letter Oct24

APTC_Pay_Award_2024_25_Schools_acc4

Formal Industrial Action Ballot of members on 2024 NJC Pay offer

Following a recent consultation of members on this year’s NJC pay offer, Unison’s national pay committee has decided to formally ballot all members under NJC pay for industrial action.

The ballot will run from 4 September to 16 October, and you will receive your ballot by post to your home address.

All you need to do is complete the ballot paper and return by post using the pre-paid envelope provided. You’ll hear plenty more about this in the coming weeks from us here in the branch and from Unison nationally, and feel free to get in touch with us if you have any questions or would like to talk. Please spreads the word amongst colleagues and fellow members.

Not received your ballot papers? You can request a new one by calling our Ballot Hotline on 0800 0 857 857 or via My UNISON | UNISON National

Each vote is crucial, so Please use your chance to have your say on your pay by voting in this important ballot!

It’s really important that we have the correct information for you, especially as we prepare for a formal ballot of members, so if there are any changes to your job role or contact details such as home address, email or phone number now or in the future, please let us know. You can do this by emailing Ealingunison@ealing.gov.uk or creating/logging into your myunison account here:

My UNISON | UNISON National

2024/25 NJC Pay Claim Submitted

Despite providing some of the most vital services in our communities, council and school staff have seen 25% wiped from the value of their pay since 2010. Staff are continuing to struggle with the cost-of-living crisis and will find better-paid, less-stressful work elsewhere if their pay continues to lose its value.

As part of the 2024 pay claim, we are asking for all council employees to receive

A wage increase of £3,000 or 10%, whichever is the greater

This is the only way to maintain the staff levels necessary to deliver services to the public, looking after the most vulnerable, giving children the education they need and keeping neighbourhoods safe.

Read the full 2024/25 NJC pay claim here

December 2023

Agreement Reached on 2023 NJC Pay Award

For Members Under NJC Pay and Conditions

After many months of negotiation, balloting and discussion, our 2023 Pay award has finally been settled.

UNISON met with the other local government unions, GMB and Unite, on Wednesday 1 November, and the joint decision was to accept the pay offer for 2023 of an increase of £2,226 on all NJC pay points (pro rata’d for part-time and term time only staff). The pay award will be backdated to 1 April 2023.

Members who receive their salary via Ealing Payroll will receive the pay increase and backpay on 21st December.

Please see below a table based on the Ealing Pay Scales to show what this pay award means for you as a percentage based on your own grade and spinal column point.

For example, for an employee at Grade 4, SCP 10, this pay award equates to a pay increase of 8.2%.

Please also see below a circular from the Greater London Provincial Council (GLPC) confirming agreement of this year’s NJC pay award. Please note that the pay spines included in this circular are the London based NJC pay spines, and not our local Ealing pay scales. We will send the updated Ealing Pay Scales to you all as soon as they have been amended to reflect the 2023 pay award.

Please feel free to get in touch should you have any questions.

Thank you all for your engagement and patience throughout this process.

Thoughts and work will now turn to preparing and submitting our 2024 pay claim to employers, and we will be in touch with you shortly about this.

London pay spines 01Apr23

Update on 22/23 NJC Pay- 15th September

Following Unison’s unsuccessful Pay Ballot in July (Ealing Unison had a 42.17% turnout) Unison, Unite and GMB are meeting on 19th September to further discuss next steps. It’s likely that Unison will push the joint Unions to settle this year’s pay award and reluctantly accept the offer made by employers back in February. This is because we did not secure enough of a mandate to successfully take industrial action to force an improved offer on pay.

We will keep you updated with the outcome of this meeting and hope that we can get the offer settled and backdated to 1st April 2023 asap.

Emps to NJC TUs pay offer 23Feb23

7th July 2023

Dear Ealing Unison Members,

I hope this finds you well.

We have now received our NJC Ballot results. It’s not what we’d hoped for.

In Ealing:

The NJC Pay disaggregated ballot for the majority of our branch, which included the council and community schools (all LBE Employees) achieved a turnout of 42.17%. Sadly, this means we did not meet the 50% threshold to have a successful ballot.
We only achieved an over 50% turnout and vote for possible strike action in 5 specific schools (Non-community and balloted as individual employers). We will write to these members separately.
As a result, the Branch Committee and reps are considering what to do about this and whether or not it would be right and appropriate to ask members in these schools to take strike action.

We also need to await the result of several National Meetings being held next week to have a clearer understanding of what will happen next – which may including having to accept the employers pay offer.

We will be in touch with further information as soon as we have some next week.

On behalf of the branch, I’d like to thank those of you who took part and voted in this ballot. We didn’t make it to 50%, which is desperately disappointing, but the level of engagement from so many of you was great to see and be part of, and shows that there is a desire here across Ealing Unison members to protect and improve our terms and conditions, and support and engage with each other.

One thing that will help us stand up for our rights and have successful ballots in the future is for members like yourself to get more involved and become reps or workplace contacts. Would you be interested?

Please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions or would like to talk about the ballot or getting more involved.

Ealing Unison Branch Bulletin:

Ealing Unison Bulletin 16th June 2023

Ealing Unison is organising online and in person meetings across our schools and workplaces throughout this period to engage with each other and help make sure we vote in numbers!

We will be on the Ground floor of Perceval House each Wednesday between 12-2pm.

Our next online meeting will be on Wednesday 31st May between 1-2pm on Teams. Click here to join the meeting

Care workers, refuse collectors, social workers, teaching assistants, community workers, street cleaners and so many more go above and beyond every single day. Local government staff keep communities safe, clean and accessible, yet there is often little or no recognition for your hard work.

With the cost-of-living skyrocketing to new highs every day, it’s time to rise up and demand decent pay for the work you do.

That’s why we’re asking members in councils and schools to vote YES in our strike ballot.

NJC pay 2023: Vote for strike action in councils and schools

UNISON has been campaigning for a decent pay rise for council and school workers. We called for a pay increase of inflation plus 2% – based on the Treasury’s annual forecast for RPI for 2023, this would amount to 12.7%. However, the local government employers have responded with an offer of a flat rate increase of £1,925 (with less for part-time and term-time workers)*. In a cost-of-living crisis this simply is not good enough. (*Due to London weighting, workers in the inner London area would receive a flat rate increase of £2,352, with those in outer London receiving £2,226)

We’ve created a pay calculator that will work out how much your pay should increase based on the current inflation rate so you can see just how ineffective this pay offer really is:

Pay Calculator

So, we’re putting it to you, our members. You are currently being balloted to ask if you wish to take industrial action over pay. Ballot papers were posted out from Tuesday 23 May in England and Wales and need to reach us by the deadline of Tuesday 4 July, with the ballot in Northern Ireland opening in August.

We understand that taking action is a big step and may feel overwhelming when you have colleagues and service users who rely on you. It may even feel that it’s something other sectors undertake but not you. But over the past 12 years, council and school staff have lost on average 25% from the value of you pay when measured against the Retail Price Index (RPI) measure of inflation since 2010. Prices and bills are reaching new highs every day and every pound in your pay packet really counts.

Taking action will send a clear message to employers that you need a better pay rise that will actually help during the cost-of-living crisis. You deliver a vital public service that helps everyone in your community – you deserve fair pay for the important work that you do.

What you can do

VOTE YES! That’s the most important thing you can do right now – look out for your red envelope and as soon as you receive your ballot paper, please vote and post it back straight away. If we don’t have at least 50% of members voting, we cannot take action.

The red envelope that NJC ballot papers will arrive in. Rise up to get pay up – Council and school worker pay 2023

If you haven’t received your ballot paper, please contact our dedicated helpline on 0800 0 857 857 – it is open between 5 June and midday 28 June.

If you have lost your ballot paper and need a replacement, you can request a new one until midday 28 June