For those who haven’t seen, the University has come back with a new offer on London Weighting.

What they are now proposing a rise in London Weighting from its current £2134 to £3500 by August 2018. The previous offer was a rise to £2500 by 2016 with consolidation at this point.

Details of the steps through which it is proposed this will be reached have not been produced.

The immediate reaction from an anonymous source in my office was ‘No, that’s not soon enough’!

It’s worth bearing in mind that the figure of £4,000 is what London Weighting would have been had it risen by inflation since 1992. So by 2018 this would need to be considerably higher. There’s of course the issue of the backdated pay that we have missed out on since 1992.

I think quite a few things can be drawn from this:

  1. The University’s initial statements on what it can afford should obviously not be taken at face value! There is, as we have argued, money there to pay staff properly, and there is no reason that this offer cannot be improved.
  2. Our campaign and pressure are definitely working! Following the postponement of the all-staff meeting, it’s clear that the University have realised that staff are taking this issue extremely seriously.
  3. It’s really important that we keep this pressure up. Apparently the postponed staff meeting is to be rescheduled for mid-November, and it remains a prime opportunity for people to make their views known on this latest offer.

We’re currently circulating a second petition which would require the University to enter into direct negotiations with all staff – please do sign this if it comes round OR let us know if you want to take a sheet round yourself…

Obviously, it would be great to know what everybody thinks!