Prospect calls on business secretary Grant Shapps to urgently address pay at UKAEA

Prospect has written to Grant Shapps MP, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, calling him to urgently address pay at the UK Atomic Energy Authority.

More than 1,000 workers at UKAEA, which represents a majority of staff, have signed a petition calling for a pay award of 20% and pay flexibility for the organisation. They have yet to receive their annual pay award, which was due in April 2022.

The letter, signed by Sue Ferns, Prospect senior deputy general secretary, makes the case for the cutting edge research that is undertaken at the UKAEA.

“Our members’ work at UKAEA is pushing back the frontiers of nuclear energy research and has the potential to unlock an energy secure, net zero future for our country. This year, the UKAEA set the record for the most energy ever produced in a stable fusion experiment.”

However, it continues:

“These advances in a field critical to the future of our country and the planet are only made possible by the work of our expert members. However, their work is being put at risk by unsustainably low levels of pay.

“Years of real terms pay cuts and an absence of a pay progression system have led to unsustainable levels of staff turnover and increasing challenges in attracting and retaining the highly skilled and specialised talent needed to undertake this research. There is huge demand in the labour market for our members’ skills and they are voting with their feet.”

The letter also invites Grant Shapps to meet with Prospect to discuss the work of the UKAEA “and the urgent need to address uncompetitive pay levels and structures that threaten the future of the UK’s global leadership in this critical field of research.”

Read and download the letter:

Ministerial letter: Annual pay award and pay flexibility at UKAEA