Latest news

Auto-enrolment for pensions

A circular is available explaining how the new auto-enrolment for pensions regulations will be implemented across the University.

Casual pay spine with equivalent grades (17 January 2013)

A revised chart of hourly rates is available Casual pay spine with equivalent grades 2013 (20kb)

August 2012 salary scales (14 January 2013)

August 2012 revision of university salary scales: all non-clinical staff

Operational Compliance with HR policies and procedures - 2012 Audit (December 2012)

Departments and faculties are now asked to complete the on-line self-assessment questionnaire for 2012. Divisional offices are also required to submit a response in relation to the personnel areas for which they have lead responsibility. Please note that only one submission should be made per department.

The audit can be accessed at https://www.survey.bris.ac.uk/oxford/psaudit2012

The audit is open from 7 December 2012 until 21 January 2013. If you would like to read the questions before starting to complete the online survey the PDF version is available here:

2012 compliance audit (100kb)

HR briefing sessions (12 November 2012)

The next termly HR briefing sessions for administrators and departmental HR staff will be held on:

6 December 11.00–12.30 in the Medical Science Teaching Centre (MSTC), South Parks Road
14 December 10.30–12.00 in Meeting room 3, University Offices, Wellington Square

The Agenda includes: round-up of current HR issues, senior appointments (ALC6/RSIV), EJRA/retirement update, support for research staff.

Disclosure and Barring: changes to the Criminal Records Bureau screening service (9 November 2012)

Circular PERS(12)07 explained changes that have taken place to the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) screening service and barring arrangements since September 2012, with the launch of a new Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) which will merge the work of the CRB and Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) on 2 December 2012.

Holiday calculator 2012/2013 (1 October 2012)

The 2012/2013 holiday calculator is available in the calculating holiday entitlement section.

OSPS consultation (16 April 2012)

The University, Colleges and other associated employers who offer membership of the University of Oxford Staff Pension Scheme (OSPS) are consulting active members of the pension scheme. Full details of the OSPS consultation document are available.

New Flexible retirement pages and circular (23 March 2012)

Guidelines for the implementation of flexible retirement are now available. This allows an eligible employee to take partial retirement, whilst staying at work in a reduced capacity. Circular PERS(12)04 give a short overview of the guidelines.

New Discounts pages (7 March 2012)

A number of external companies offer discounts to University employees and these have been put into some new discounts for staff webpages. These pages will be added to as we are made aware of further offers.

Olympic planning (7 March 2012)

Circular PERS(12)03 provides guidance for departments of planning for the management issues associated with the forthcoming Olympics.

August 2011 revision of University salary scales: all non-clinical staff (1 February 2012)

The latest salary scales are now available. The pay uplift is a consolidated, flat-rate increase of £150 for each full-time employee (pro rata for part-time staff) with retrospective effect from 1 August 2011. It will be implemented in the February 2012 payroll, together with back pay.

Updated guidance on redundancy (January 2012)

Updated guidance on handling the termination of fixed-term contracts and redundancies is now available. The aim has been to simplify and clarify previous guidance rather than to make major revisions, but we have taken the opportunity to introduce a few changes, in particular to improve the working of the procedure for ending fixed-term contracts. You might therefore wish to familiarise yourselves with these procedures which come into effect immediately.

There are two procedures, the choice of which to use depends on the type of contract being terminated and the cause of the termination.

1) The procedure for normal termination of a fixed-term contract applies to the termination of a fixed-term contract at the expected date.

2) The procedure for considering the termination of contracts on grounds of redundancy applies to all academic, academic-related and support staff on permanent contracts, self-financing contracts, open-ended externally-funded contracts (for academic-related staff only), and fixed-term contracts (where the contract is being terminated prematurely).

Introduction of Employer Justified Retirement Age (28 October 2011)

Council has adopted a retirement age for university academic and academic-related staff, including (in respect of university appointments) the holders of joint appointments. Council Regulations 3 have been amended accordingly.

All existing members of academic and academic-related staff are deemed, with effect from 1 October 2011, to have a retirement date of 30 September preceding the 68th birthday. This is the Employer Justified Retirement Age (EJRA). Where, under the Personnel Committee’s procedures applying until 30 September 2011, a member of staff has a retirement date set by individual agreement, that retirement date will continue to apply.

Council has also adopted a procedure for considering requests from members of academic and academic-related staff who are due to retire on or after the EJRA, but who wish to extend their employment.
EJRA guidance

New website goes live (4 October 2011)

The content from our old website has been migrated into this new format. We hope that you will find the new format more user-friendly. In developing the new site we have responded to your feedback from the 2009 and 2010 Personnel audit forms and have worked hard to deliver on the requests for:

improved navigation
greater simplicity
a section for pro-forma documentation
information on the website, and not just in circulars
clear indications of when information has changed
printable versions of documents such as maternity leave packs.

Updating the website is a work-in-progress, and we will be making further improvements over the coming weeks, so you will find a few 'web page under construction' areas and your Sector Personnel Officer will be able to assist you in these areas until the guidance is available.

Until you are familiar with the new site the site-search facility at the top of each page should help you to find the content you are looking for. We have also put together an A-Z search and also grouped information into headings that we hope are intuitive to use. Unfortunately your bookmarks, aside from to the main landing page, will no longer work into the new site and will need to be reset.

We welcome your feedback, and any suggestions you have as to how we can build on the improvements to date as we work our way through to review all the content. Please contact Kate Butler with your comments.

New contract templates introduced for Academic-related and Support Staff (30 September 2011)

A revised format for contracts of employment for academic-related and university support staff has been introduced for use from 4 October 2011.

The new format is intended to make the completion of contracts more straightforward, and facilitate future updating. The template will also be compatible with the HR Information System (HRIS). Full details.

Changes to retirement age for Support Staff (26 September 2011)

The statutory Default Retirement Age is being abolished from 1 October 2011.

With effect from 1 October 2011 there will be no normal or fixed age at which university support staff must retire.

The University will no longer be able to request support staff to take retirement at a particular age or to suggest that they consider doing so. It will be for individual members of support staff to decide when they wish to retire and to communicate this to their managers. The University will, however, continue to be a source of information and support to staff in helping them make their decision.

The support staff handbook has been amended to take account of these changes.

Full information is available in the Retirement web pages.

Relocation allowance scheme revised (1 September 2011)

Changes to the University’s scheme for reimbursing relocation expenses will apply to appointments made on or after 1 September 2011. In future,

departments and divisions will have discretion as whether to offer the relocation scheme in individual recruitment exercises;
expenses will normally be capped at £8,000;
in exceptional circumstances, when particular recruitment imperatives apply, more than £8,000 may be made available if authorised by the head of department;
where a relocation allowance is offered, this should be stated in the further particulars for the post; and
departments should notify the Finance Division of the amount authorised for each relocation allowance to before any payments are made.

Full details of the relocation scheme are available on the web at http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/finance/expenses/relocationscheme/.

Agency Workers Regulations (26 August 2011)

The Agency Workers Regulations 2010 came into force on 1 October 2011. These give agency workers (primarily 'temps') an entitlement to the same or no less favourable treatment than direct employees of the University with respect to basic employment and working conditions. The Regulations require agency workers to be given access to collective facilities and information on job vacancies from their first day of work. Other entitlements come into effect if and when the agency worker completes a qualifying period of 12 weeks.

Agency worker guidance

Download the circular.

Changes in holiday arrangements (1 August 2011)

The arrangements for carrying over leave and for dealing with holiday which is affected by sickness have been clarified. These changes, summarised below, also reflect recent developments in employment case law.

The introduction of a cap of five days in the amount of leave that may be carried over from one leave year to the next.
Amendments to the arrangements for untaken holiday for employees leaving the University.
Clarification of the arrangements which apply when sickness interrupts or prevents a period of annual leave.
Clarification of the arrangements for taking holiday during a period of sickness absence.

Following consultation with staff side representatives, the staff handbooks and this website have been updated to reflect these changes.