I am writing to confirm a number of practical details in relation to the University response to national industrial action, including how pay deductions will be applied for participation in industrial action.
The University and College Union (UCU) has now confirmed there will be three days of strike action on Thursday 24, Friday 25, and Wednesday 30 November 2022, and continuous action short of a strike (ASOS) commencing Wednesday 23 November across 150 universities. This industrial action concerns nationally-negotiated issues including pay and pensions.
Our approach to this next period of industrial action will remain the same as last academic year: we will continue to prioritise our students’ education and experience above all other activities at our University.
We will ask staff who choose to take strike action or action short of a strike (ASOS) to prioritise all educational activities and deprioritise or stop all other work where needed. This will include all research activities and all non-educational activities. This approach fully respects the right of staff to take industrial action with disruption focused away from our students and onto all our non-educational activities, including research activities.
In relation to pay deductions, 100% of a full day’s pay will be deducted for every day of strike action taken. This will be the case whether strike action is for all or part of the day. Deductions will be made for participation in strike action in the next available payroll. If you do take part in the strike action, please note that although the action applies to the December payroll run, it may not be possible to administer the adjustment to pay by the payroll cut-off point and therefore the proportion of pay deducted may fall into the subsequent month (January 2023).
Where any education activities that are cancelled due to strike action are made up, no further deductions will be made. It is expected that planned education disrupted by the three November strike days is made up within a reasonable time frame directed by the Head of School/Institute or their delegate, and by no later than Friday 20 January 2023.
If education is not made up by 20 January 2023, or within a reasonable timescale agreed by the Head of School/Institute, then the University considers this as partial performance and will continue to deduct a full day's pay until all planned education is made up. No pay will be deducted for taking action short of a strike (ASOS) as long as all planned educational activities are carried out. No deductions for ASOS will be made until February 2023 payroll in order to provide time for colleagues to make up education activities. In the event that education is not made up by 20 January, deductions for ASOS will be made from the date from which the breach of contract and partial performance initiated. Once a member of staff confirms to the Head of School/Institute or their appropriate delegate that they are ready and willing to carry out all their educational activities in full, deductions will stop and they will be expected to complete all work not carried out during participation in ASOS within agreed timescales.
Heads of School will be communicating with colleagues to clarify who has participated in strike action, and ASOS, after the strike days notified in order that relevant deductions can be made. This information will be shared with relevant colleagues in HR for the purpose of making pay deductions only. Colleagues are reminded of UCU FAQ advice: once you are back to work following the strike action, you should respond truthfully to any query from your employer as to whether you have taken or are taking industrial action.
This approach fully respects the right of staff to take industrial action with disruption to research and all non-educational activities, while doing all that we can to protect our students’ education, in line with our core mission and vision. For more information, visit our FAQs page. This includes information on the pensions impact of pay deductions.
Please also see the recent communication from Chief Operations Officer Sharon Ellis [PDF], that outlines that, whilst we continue to hope for a nationally-negotiated settlement with UCU based on a realistic assessment of what is possible for the sector, we continue to work constructively with our local UCU and other campus trade unions on agreed areas of mutual interest.
Louise LesterHR Director