The National Joint Council for Local Government Services (NJC) has come to an agreement on the 2023/24 pay award, applicable from 1st April 2023 to 31st March 2024.

The terms of the agreement include:

• With effect from 1 April 2023, for all spinal points to 43, the agreed award was a flat rate payment of £1,925. For all spinal points above that the award was 3.88%

NALC has produced a briefing on the 2023/24 pay award, with the updated salary scales, and that can be downloaded here.

For the sake of clarity, the £1925 is a payment made to the full time equivalent for each SCP and is then pro-rata for the hourly rate. Part-time clerks will want to view the hourly rates to find their new salary, which is then backdated from 1st April 2023.

**Please note, the pay award is applicable to employees on the NALC model contract**

Backpay for employees who have left since 1 April

The NJC recommend that: “If requested by an ex-employee to do so, we recommend that employers should pay any monies due to that employee from 1 April 2023 to the employee’s last day of employment.

When salary arrears are paid to ex-employees who were in the Local Government Pension Scheme (LPGS), the employer must inform its local LGPS fund.  Employers will need to amend the CARE and final pay figures (if the ex-employee has pre-April 2014 LGPS membership) accordingly.  Further detail is provided in section 15 of the HR guide and the Backdated Pay Award FAQs, which are available on the employer resources section of www.lgpsregs.org.”

Calculation of hourly pay

The calculation of hourly rates for local councils differs slightly to the calculation published by the NJC for principal councils, which has caused some confusion in the past. It is intended that next year, the calculation basis for local councils shall move to the approach recommended by the NJC so there will no longer be a marginal difference. More information is in the briefing above.