Edinburgh Napier University cleaners and admin staff to stage 24-hour strike over pay
Cleaners, technicians, admin and security staff at Edinburgh’s Napier University are set to strike over what they say is an imposed real-terms pay cut.
They will take part in a 24-hour stoppage on Friday, April 10, along with fellow members of the Unite union at Glasgow and Strathclyde universities.
Unite said the walk-out follows successive poor pay awards and years of industrial unrest in the higher education sector, with UK universities imposing a 1.4 per cent pay offer for 2025/26 on the Scottish university workforce.
The union added that with RPI inflation currently running at 3.6 per cent and expected to rise due to the war in Iran, the award represented a “massive real terms pay cut”.
Pay talks are already underway for 2026/27 with the joint trade unions in higher education demanding an increase of at least RPI plus three per cent or £3,000, whichever is the greater to be paid in full in August 2026. Unions are also demanding a minimum hourly rate of pay of £15.
Unite said more than a decade and a half of below inflation pay rises had led to higher education wages falling by around 30 per cent in real terms since 2010.
The union’s members work primarily in non-academic roles within the higher education institutions including estates and security staff alongside cleaners, technicians, libraries and administrative roles.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “University workers deserve far better than a real terms pay cut after over a decade of below-inflation pay rises. They are faced with rising energy, household, transport and food costs while their wages are being slashed.
“University employers should be ashamed of treating hard working staff in this way which is why our members in Glasgow, Strathclyde and Edinburgh Napier will fight for better jobs, pay and conditions by taking a stand against this appalling treatment.”
Unite lead officer for higher education Alison MacLean said staff working in Scottish higher education had faced years of significant and successive real-terms pay cuts.
“Last year, university staff had one of the worst ever pay awards imposed upon them which is why our members have no option but to fight back. The 2025-26 budget for higher education represented a real-terms cut, failing to match inflation and leaving our institutions exposed. We are currently in pay negotiations for 2026/27 and our members will simply not accept another derisory pay award.
“Unite’s members are being forced to pay the price for financial mismanagement through low-ball pay offers, attacks on terms and conditions, and increasing threats of compulsory redundancies. We will not accept this, and our members are prepared to fight for a better education sector for all.”
Edinburgh Napier University has been approached for comment.