2007/8 Pay Award - arrangements to pay your uplift and back pay

The 2007/8 'cost of living' pay award, backdated from 1 April 2007 for non-teaching staff has been agreed and new rates of pay are now available. Click here for details.

The new rates and arrears will be paid together for the majority of staff on their normal December payday.

*	Monthly paid staff on a regular contract will receive their new rate and arrears on the usual December payday, for many staff December 19.
*	Staff who claim their hours and who are paid on an hourly rate have their arrears calculated in a different way. These arrears will be paid in January.
*	Staff on maternity or sick leave and who are currently being paid will be included in the December arrears calculation. Those not currently receiving pay will receive arrears in January.

Payslips in December will itemise the arrears paid - arrears overtime, arrears regular pay etc., so there will be information to support staff checking they have received what they are expecting. However if the entries get beyond a certain number of lines the payments will roll up and be shown against 'Other payments'. The calculation of arrears has been a complex exercise because of the amount of backdating involved and therefore people should check their pay carefully. If there are issues with pay it would be helpful if these could be raised via email rather than telephone to ensure we are able to track their resolution.

Schools are advised to pay particular attention to budget monitoring reports that relate to December salary payments. The pay award arrears are worked out on a month-by-month basis, and coded to the costing details in place for each month. This may result in an issue for schools affected by re-organisation since April 2007, where some cost centres have now been closed. Finance is aware of this and it is recognised that journal adjustments will need to be made.

As a result of the work associated with processing pay award arrears in December there has been an impact on the production of contract documents relating to January staffing changes. Please bear with us whilst we catch up on these.