Reminder to vote in consultative ballot

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You should have recently received a consultative pay ballot from UCU Headquarters.

Please look out for an email headed “IMPORTANT: UCU higher education pay offer consultative ballot (2026)” which was sent out on Tuesday.

It is important that as many members as possible vote. 

This consultative ballot is the first step towards securing a mandate for national industrial action and pressing both employers and Government to address the higher education funding crisis. 

At a time when colleagues at UCL and across the sector are facing restructures, job losses, increasing workloads and growing financial pressures, it is more important than ever that staff have a strong collective voice. National campaigning complements local action to defend jobs and improve working conditions. 

The HEC recommends that members reject the 2% pay offer, not least because RPI is running at 3% for the year to date. 

Why should we reject the offer?

  • The pay offer is yet another real-terms pay cut — worth around 1% less in real terms. 
  • It adds to the sharp fall in staff pay since 2021, itself a large cut on 2008 pay rates. Against RPI, salary points 15 and above have fallen to the equivalent of 50 or more calendar days’ pay in 2021 money (a cut of 13.6% or more). For staff on points 26 and above (most of our members) the cut is even more severe.
  • All five higher education trade unions (UCU, EIS, UNISON, UNITE and GMB) are consulting their members over moving into dispute over pay, creating the potential for coordinated action across the sector .
  • Universities are facing significant financial challenges, but staff should not be expected to bear the burden through continued erosion of pay, increasing workloads and job insecurity. 
  • We also need to UCL UCU: Reminder to vote in consultative ballot to address the structural funding challenges facing higher education. Universities cannot continue to absorb a funding crisis by restructuring posts, cutting jobs, depressing pay and increasing workloads. The Government must take responsibility for a sector that requires a national solution. A sustainable higher education sector requires sustainable investment in its workforce. 

Whilst this is a consultative ballot, a strong turnout and a clear vote in favour of industrial action will inform UCU’s next steps, including whether to proceed to a statutory industrial action ballot. 

Please consider whether you would be prepared to take industrial action in support of the pay claim. Campaigning nationally over pay is entirely compatible with taking local action to defend jobs. This is not a ‘zero-sum game’. National and local campaigns strengthen one another. Indeed, the employers launched rounds of redundancies in 2023 when we stopped taking national action over pay.

Whatever your view, please use your vote. Encourage your colleagues to do the same and help us build the strongest possible national mandate. High participation demonstrates the strength and engagement of our membership, and every vote strengthens our collective voice. A strong national pay ballot is about showing employers and government that staff across the sector are organised, united and prepared to stand together. 

That strengthens every branch fighting redundancies.

In short, if this consultative vote returns a strong YES for industrial action, together with a high turnout, it will give the union the momentum and confidence to move to a full statutory ballot. 

Let us build a strong national mandate. Every vote strengthens our collective voice. 

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