NJC Pay scale

Arrietty64

Hi

I work for a voluntary sector organisation that utilises the NJC pay scale. On starting with the company last June I started off on SCP (Spinal Column Point) 22 which is the lowest rate for my role. I understand that each year I will receive a pay increment and have read that each year I will progress up one point in the SCP as a result i.e. later this year I will progress up to SCP 23 and receive whatever salary applies to that rate following agreement of the 2018 - 2020 pay off between local government employers and the unions.

Can anyone confirm whether my understanding of the situation as detailed above is correct? i.e I will progress from SCO 22 to 23 or will I still be stuck in SCP 22, albeit receiving a slightly higher salary?

Thank you in advance for your help.

jobbingmusician

I think you should progress, but it depends on your contract. When we used NJC, all jobs were banded. So for example you might have a job banded at NJC 22-26, 22-23, or conceivably just at band 22. In the first two examples you would increase each year until you hit the top of the specified range. In the last example you would obviously not increase.

Arrietty64

Hi and many thanks for your reply. My contract states that I am employed in a role that pays a salary of NJC points 22 - 25 therefore I should progress to 23 with my next pay rise - can you confirm this is indeed correct?

jobbingmusician

Probably. Assuming your employer follows the entirety of the NJC scale, and doesn't just use it as a peg to hang appointments on. And assuming they can afford it - many charities can't afford to give annual increments just now.

Ooo and one further point. NJC points are supposed to reward experience. But you haven't actually been on point 22 for a year yet. In my experience, employers treat this in different ways.

Some will give it automatically to all employees.
Some give the NJC progression on the anniversary of the start date.
Some don't give any progression to employees with less than x service. (x varies.)

I apologise, as having thought about all these options I now feel my original reply to you was slightly optimistic. Hopefully your employer will embrace option 1 or 2. I do think it would be a bit mean to refuse progression to an employee with 9 months' service, as you will have on 31 Mar, but I'm sure you'll understand about the x option - an employee who started who started two weeks before the annual pay rises is unlikely to be entitled to move up to the next spinal point, so employers with any sense draw a line somewhere.

Andy_L

It's also possible that progression is based on a satisfactory staff report as well as the points made by jobbingmusician