Created on: 12 Aug 2025
Now that we are in the third week of the ULA consultative ballot, we are asking all EIS ULA members yet to do so to cast their vote as soon as possible.
You should have received an email with a link that will direct you to a voting page. If you have not yet received the email with a link to the online voting page, please email ballot@eis.org.uk with your name and home address, and we will arrange for another email to be sent to you.
I would also ask you to update your personal details here to include your home address and mobile phone number, so we can keep you up-to-date with information on the current ballot.
The EIS ULA Executive Committee recommend voting NO to accepting the pay offer and voting YES to taking strike action.
For many years, staff in higher education have not received cost-of-living pay increases in line with inflation. Ultimately, this means that, in real-terms, your salary today is not worth what it was 10 years ago and the spending power you have to help you and your family maintain your quality of life has diminished.
The reason given for the sub-inflationary pay offers, which are subsequently imposed on staff instead of being agreed on, is that universities cannot afford to give staff larger pay uplifts. This simply is not true. Although some institutions may have recorded deficits last year, almost all of them have recorded surpluses for many years previous, and have accumulated vast cash reserves, in the tens and even hundreds of millions of pounds.
Gathering information from publicly available financial statements across the sector, below is a short list of some higher education institutions and their cash at the bank balances as of 31st July 2024:
• Edinburgh Napier University - £53M
• Glasgow Caledonian University - £80M
• Robert Gordon University - £33M
• University of Edinburgh - £240M
• University of Glasgow - £518M
• University of the West of Scotland - £28M
These sums of money are available to universities in the same way that you have money in your current account- they can access these funds instantly.
For too long, staff in universities have simply been ignored when disputing the pay offer made to them, having to endure year after year of substandard settlements being imposed upon them. Over many years of disputes, UCEA have failed to increase their offers through any meaningful discussions and have simply gotten away with deciding what you and your colleagues should receive as a pay uplift. The only way that this will change is if members decide to stand up and challenge them. Only today, it has been reported that RPI is now sitting at 4.4%. The offer from employers is derisory and needs to be rejected. You deserve more than a well-below inflation 1.4%!
Please use your vote in the EIS ULA consultative ballot. Vote NO to accepting the pay offer and vote YES to taking strike action. Only by remaining united and demonstrating our resolve can we apply pressure on employers to improve their offer and break the cycle of imposed substandard pay uplifts for staff across higher education.