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Method of payment

Your salary will be paid directly into your bank, building society or equivalent account. Salaries are paid on the 26th of the month (or the Friday before if that date is a non-working day). You will receive a monthly statement of your pay showing relevant deductions and any Statutory Sick Pay or Statutory Maternity Pay payable to you. The statement is issued by the Payroll Section of the Human Resources Division through your Head of Institution.

Salaries are normally paid monthly, and newly-appointed staff do not have the option of weekly pay. A few members of staff are still paid weekly. If you are paid weekly and wish to change from weekly payment to monthly credit, or if you are promoted to a scale where payment has to be made by monthly credit, the University will make you an advance of salary to enable you to change from weekly to monthly pay. You should make application to the Payroll Section, Human Resources Division, on the form UAP/4, available from that office or from your institutional pay office.

If you work part-time throughout the year, you will be paid a salary based on your weekly hours. If you work for part of the year only (e.g. term-time), your salary will be based on the number of hours worked over the year and you will receive this salary in twelve monthly instalments.

The Payroll Section automatically makes standard deductions and any other deduction which you authorise. The University reserves the right to make deductions from your salary of any monies which have been overpaid to you or as directed by court order or other agreement. The rate and timescale of such deductions will be agreed with you. If you have any queries about your salary you should approach your institution's pay office in the first instance, and you may also approach the Payroll Section.

The University reserves the right to withhold payment of salary for any day or days when you are absent from work without permission or medical certification. You should notify your Head of Institution of the details of the account to which your salary should be credited.

 

Salary scales

You will find details of the salary structure for your Division in the document 'Schedule of Grades, Salaries and Wages', which you will receive together with your letter of appointment. This document shows the salary structure for your Division, the scale of pay for each grade and information about point of entry and arrangements for increments.

Salary scales are normally revised annually. New rates of pay are determined by negotiation with the trades unions recognised for each Division of Staff, and are approved by the University and Assistants Joint Board and the Council. Revised salary scales are effective from 1 August.

 

Increments

The salary scales for the CS, T and M Divisions include a number of incremental points for each grade within the Division.

You will normally be appointed at the first point of the salary scale for the grade of your post. Exceptionally an applicant who has specific and relevant qualifications and experience over and above the requirements of the post may be appointed at a higher starting point.

If you are appointed to a post for which you do not possess the minimum required qualifications or experience, you may be appointed at a lower grade, and you will transfer to the grade of the post when you have acquired the necessary skills.

If you move to a higher grade by promotion within your Institution, on upgrading of your post or on transfer to a different Institution you will normally be placed on the first point of the scale for the new grade, but if you are already on a scale point equivalent to or higher than that point you will be placed on the next highest point which would give you an increase in salary of about 5%. If you transfer to another post at your existing grade, you will remain on the same scale point.

If you have been in post for three months at the incremental date, you will normally move to the next point on the incremental scale on the incremental date for your Division (1 April for the M Division, 1 July for the CS Division, 1 October for the T Division). Staff whose performance or behaviour is unsatisfactory may have an increment withheld.

If you are employed on a training or age-related scale you will be appointed at the appropriate age-point and thereafter you will progress through the scales as you make progress in your training programme.

 

Discretionary payments and additional increments

Most salary scales contain discretionary points which are marked with an asterisk on the published scales. You will not move automatically to these points. If you are at the top of the normal scale you may be considered for progression to a discretionary point in recognition of exceptional performance in the post. If you are not at the top of the normal scale you may be considered for an award of an additional increment in recognition of exceptional performance in the post. Heads of Institution make recommendations for discretionary payments and additional increments to Awarding committees. Requests are considered once a year.

Additional increments and discretionary payments are awarded where an assistant's performance is considered to be at an outstanding level, over and above the level normally required for the grade, and this performance has been maintained over a long period of time. In considering recommendations the criteria include: outstanding performance, the specialist nature of the work undertaken, the rarity value of skill involved, the output of work achieved, and any other factors which may make the award appropriate.

An annual increment may be withheld, or a discretionary payment or additional increment withdrawn, if an assistant is subject to a disciplinary procedure because of his or her performance or conduct.