Equal Pay Statement

At NCL we value the contributions of our academic and professional services staff and believe that all staff regardless of gender, ethnicity, age, or any other protected characteristic, deserve to be compensated fairly and equitably based on their skills, experience, and contributions.

We are dedicated to creating a fair and transparent compensation framework working within our National Bargaining Framework and ensuring our policies and procedures meet the requirements of the Equality Act 2010. Through pay audits, clear salary structures, and equitable practices, we ensure that pay decisions are free from bias and based solely on qualifications, responsibilities, and performance. Our goal is to foster a diverse and inclusive community where every individual feels valued and fairly compensated for their work.

 The college’s approach to pay remains largely as set out in our previous equal pay statement published in April 2021.  The numbers of staff declaring a disability or from a minority ethnic background are low.  The college continues to monitor these protected characteristics to ensure that members of staff belonging to these groups are not treated unfairly in relation to pay and salary placement.

The principle of equal pay applies to all members of staff employed by the Board of Management of NCL.

The Executive Board are responsible for ensuring that all staff policies and procedures meet our organisational and legislative requirements and that these are reviewed regularly.

Line Managers are responsible for ensuring that they apply recruitment and selection procedures, follow relevant college policy and procedure in relation to flexible working and respond to time-off requests in a fair and consistent manner. Advice can be sought from Human Resources about the application of any relevant policy or procedure.  Line Managers are also responsible for reviewing job descriptions to ensure that these accurately reflect the role undertaken.

Members of staff who believe that they are not being paid equally to a Colleague for reasons related to a protected characteristic should raise concerns informally with their line manager or contact Human Resources for advice.

For the purposes of this policy statement pay is defined as contractual pay and non-cash contractual benefits such as pensions contributions, overtime rates, allowances and sick pay.

Equal Pay is defined under the Equality Act 2010 to include the following^[1]:

• Like Work – work which is the same or broadly similar. It involves tasks which require similar knowledge or skills, and any differences in the work are not of practical importance.
• Work Rated as Equivalent – work which has been rated under a valid job evaluation scheme as being of equal value in terms of how demanding it is.
• Work of Equal Value – Work which is not similar and has not been rated as equivalent but is of equal value in terms of demands such as effort, skill and decision-making.

NCL is a Living Wage employer and achieved accreditation in December 2018, after shadowing Living Wage rates since 2013/14.  It is hoped that this will help address the gender pay gap due to the high number of female staff in our professional services lower paid roles.

For both Academic and Professional Services staff pay awards and terms and conditions are collectively bargained via the National Joint Negotiating Committee for Scotland’s colleges that has been in place since 2015. The only group not covered by the collective arrangements are the salaries and terms and conditions of the Deans, which are set by the Principal, and the Executive Board (covering the roles of College Registrar, Chief Resources Officer, Assistant Principal, Deputy Principals and Principal) which are set by the Board of Management. This guided by a set of key underpinning principles and informed by both Scottish Public Sector Pay Policy and sector settlements. All Executive Board and Professional Service roles are paid at spot points and there are no incremental scales. Under this arrangement, everyone undertaking the same role (or a role that the college considers is of equal value) receives the same salary.

For our Academic Staff, the roles of Head of Department and Academic Leader are all paid at fixed points, matched to one of three nationally agreed salary points for promoted posts. All staff undertaking one of these roles receives the same salary as everyone else in the same post.

For Academic staff more widely, in terms of lecturing staff, we operate a nationally agreed five-point scale and staff are placed on the appropriate point on the scale using nationally agreed placement arrangements. All staff not at the top of the scale will progress through annual increment or achievement of teaching qualifications until the reach Point 5.

As part of national bargaining a national job evaluation for Professional Services roles falls within the scope of collective bargaining we await further update of any appropriate actions necessary as a result of the process which commenced in 2018 but has yet to be fully concluded.