Payscales 2018 - 2020

The NJC payscales, which are local government payscales resulting from negotiations between the employer and trade union sides of the National Joint Council, have been reformed for 2019/20, year two of the pay agreement. Please note that NICVA is in no way involved in NJC pay negotiations and agreements.

[Update: check payscales for 2020/2021 here ]

As the payscales are widely used in the voluntary and community sector in Northern Ireland, NICVA produces the attached document which group the NJC payscales into pay bands/grades for guidance only.  Given the significant changes to the NJC payscales from April 2019, job role descriptors developed by NICVA for each pay band/grade are under review.  The changes to the pay spine mean that the NJC payscales are now from points 1 to 43 and a summary of the key changes is outlined in the original pay offer: https://www.gmb.org.uk/sites/default/files/LG_OFFER.pdf

To align existing pay to the new payscales, organisations should read the attached guidance from NJC outlining two options available. It is up to each organisation to decide how it will align pay in the organisation to the new payscales. Guidance can be found here and in particular on pages 4-5: https://www.unison.org.uk/content/uploads/2018/08/NJC-Technical-Advice-in-Local-Discussions.pdf

The attached document is for guidance only and pay setting should be an objective process appropriate to each organisation.  Due to the number of factors involved in setting pay, NICVA is not in a position to provide advice on how the payscales should be applied in your organisation or what pay should be assigned to specific job roles.