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Following the last update in February 2025, discussions between the Support Staff Trade Unions and the employers have continued to take place.
These discussions led to the Support Staff Trade Unions undertaking consultative ballots of their members on the terms of the National Job Evaluation Project. When these ballots closed UNISON and Unite members overwhelmingly backed the resumption of the project. The GMB stated that their member ballot outcome, found the proposal was insufficient.
The employers discussed the ballot outcomes at meetings on 14 May and 21 May 2025 and agreed to proceed with the work required to deliver National Job Evaluation. The GMB will continue to be invited to participate in these discussions.
The next step in this project will be to continue work on a draft timeline at a joint employers’ and support staff trade unions working group to focus on the detail of the project which will then be used to develop a full Business Case which will be taken to the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and the Scottish Government for review and approval.
It has also been agreed that colleges will be asked to begin preparatory work to map job history from 2018, ensure Job Descriptions and Organisation Charts are updated and confirm the number of roles to be evaluated. This information will also be used to develop the Business Case.
Please note, the Scottish Government has confirmed in an article in The Herald the following:
“The Scottish Government remains committed to the colleges job evaluation project. Backdated pay, when agreed, will be distributed to colleges via the standard SFC allocations process. It is our expectation that this spend will be monitored through the reporting and audit processes already in place between Colleges and the Scottish Funding Council.”
It is anticipated, the next joint update will be provided when the Business Case is issued to the SFC and Scottish Government.
Following the last update in August 2024, discussions between the Support Staff Trade Unions and the employers have continued. Both sides are committed to making progress and delivering on the commitment to the Job Evaluation Project.
All agree that it is unfortunate that the project had become delayed and stalled in unnecessary complications. Further, both sides agree it is important for there to be a shared objective and outcome for the project before further work is undertaken.
On that basis, constructive talks have taken place on the use of the historical Job Evaluation data. In these discussions it has become clear, and supported by advice from experts, that due to the passage of time, the inevitable change in work content, and concerns from historical sampling audits, that the previous evaluation and scoring of roles cannot be considered reliable.
It is fundamental to any Job Evaluation Project that the data used must be up to date and an accurate analysis of job content, therefore, employers and trade unions are now exploring options for current data collection and analysis to ensure the integrity of the project.
Finally, although it is well understood that Job Evaluation does not equate to the harmonisation of pay for jobs across different employers, work is being undertaken in partnership to aid meaningful negotiations on the appropriate application of Job Evaluation outcomes to pay structures.
Following our last update in March 2023 that advised individual rank order score outcomes had been issued to colleges for feedback. Having received feedback from individual colleges, the project was paused.
The employers and the support staff trade unions have since met several times to fully discuss revised proposals submitted by the staff side and how to get the project back on track. Work is now ongoing to produce a new project plan and a subsequent business plan which is required to seek approval for additional funding.
Further discussions will continue between employers and support staff trade unions over the coming weeks, and employers and support staff unions will provide a more regular update on the progress of these discussions.
In the meantime, if you have any questions, you can contact your college HR department, or UNISON, GMB, Unite.
Following our update in December 2022, we can now report that all 22 college HR departments have received the initial outcomes from the evaluation process for feedback.
College HR department feedback is now ongoing and will be considered before the finalised outcomes from the evaluation process are ready for ratification from the NJNC Job Evaluation Working Group, and subsequently the full NJNC.
Employers and support staff trade unions met on Wednesday 22 February 2023 for informal, exploratory discussions on this area of work. This included undertaking Stage Three (development of pay and grading options) in a timeous and efficient way. Both sides reiterated their joint commitment to ensuring college staff can access the funding set aside for National Job Evaluation outcomes as soon as possible.
Further discussions will continue between employers and support staff trade unions over the coming weeks, and we will aim to provide a further update in April 2023.
In the meantime, if you have any questions, you can contact your college HR department, Job Evaluation Project Team or UNISON, GMB, Unite.
Following our update at the end of October 2022, we can now report that work on the final quality assurance checks, as part of Stage Two (evaluation of roles), has been progressing well over the past few months and all 22 college HR departments are due to receive the initial outcomes from the evaluation process for feedback ahead of the festive break.
Next steps will be for the project team to consider this feedback and finalise the outcomes from the evaluation process ready for ratification from the NJNC Job Evaluation Working Group and subsequently to the full NJNC in early 2023 and therefore, conclude this stage of the project.
A project update was provided at the recent NJNC Side Table (Support) meeting on Wednesday 7 December 2022 and further key meetings will be scheduled for early 2023 to allow further discussions to take place between the support staff and management sides on taking forward the remaining stages of the project which includes Stage Three (development of pay and grading options) and Stage Four (Appeals Process).
Once these discussions have taken place, the project team will be able firm up the details around timescales for final implementation, and we will aim to provide a further update in February 2023.
In the meantime, if you have any questions, you can contact your college HR department, Job Evaluation Project Team or UNISON, GMB, Unite.