How to negotiate relocation expenses (for a postdoc in the UK) two months after I accepted the offer?

Question

I was offered a UKRI funded position. It was advertised as two positions. I negotiated my salary given my experience and the PI refused. Since I am International, I was waiting for my visa so I attended some meetings with the team. During these meetings, I realised that my level is much higher than other postdoc who clearly did not know a lot of stuff.

Unfortunately, no one instructed me on negotiation process, I thought it is all about salary. I did not even know about relocation negotiation. I am not comfortable and I honestly want to reject this offer. It is my first opportunity to work. I need it but I feel I deserved more.

Can I negotiate my relocation expenses to be covered? How to negotiate relocation expenses? What if it failed?

Should I reject the offer or accept it just because I do not have any other opportunity? I am not comfortable doing a job and I know I should have more.

Answer 1

After the update to the question I will turn my comment into an answer.

In general there is very limited scope for negotiating academic salaries in the UK, especially at the post-doc level. There is a national pay scale which constrains the salaries possible for a particular job category ('band' or 'grades') fairly tightly. You can often find these pay ranges by searching 'University Name Pay Scale'. See example here (not my institution). The Band/Grade will often (but not always) be mentioned in the job advertisement. It would be exceptionally difficult (impossible) to negotiate a salary outside the pay band of the job in question. In most cases you would get a salary at the lower end of the pay band since you increase by one 'point' per year and would then get stuck at the top of the band unless you got promoted to the next 'band'/'grade' (unlikely for a short-term post-doc since this would mean promotion to a permanent faculty position).

Relocation is often an administrative policy depending on the position & length of contract. So there is probably limited scope to negotiate this. But you could (should) ask about it if you need it. At my institution you would need at least a 1 year contract to qualify for relocation (among other requirements). This is managed by our HR department.

Note that UKRI funds are quite restricted in what they can be used for, so it usually isn't possible to pay more salary or relocation from research funds.

We can't say if you should accept the job or not. But make sure your expectations are realistic based on how academic pay/benefits work in the UK.

Answer 2

I agree with atom44's answer that there is usually a very limited opportunity to negotiate postdoc salary in the UK (see also my other answer).

Regarding the relocation expenses, your University should have a policy on that. Sometimes relocation is covered for all new staff, sometimes only for permanent, sometimes only for lecturers and above, sometimes only for international, sometimes only for local. This is not in your offer, because it is in the "collective agreement" which is an internal document negotiated by University senior management, staff unions and sometimes academic Senate. HR will know the rules and will tell you whether they can reimburse your relocation from the Uni's budget. Importantly, this is not the UKRI budget, which your PI is responsible for. This is why you should ask HR, not PI, about it (but you can cc your PI in the email of course).