The recognised trade union for academic and related staff

• Results of poll
• Advice on Returning to Work Tomorrow and Next Week
• Advice on Rescheduling Teaching
• Next steps

Results of poll

Following the poll on the offer from management, our membership checks of participants, and removal of any duplicate votes, we can confirm that members have voted to accept management’s offer (64% in favour, 33% against, with 3% abstaining). Members have also voted to reschedule some activities in return for the University not deducting pay (58% in favour, 21% against, with 21% abstaining). 

This means that we will be notifying management that we are calling off strike action for Friday 9th May and 12-16 May, and that Action Short of a Strike is called off starting Friday 9th May. At the EGM, clarification was sought on whether accepting management’s offer also required us to end our trade dispute. The wording of the offer does not mention the trade dispute, so the chair took the decision that we will not immediately end our dispute as a result of this vote, and we will revisit the question of whether to withdraw our trade dispute as a branch in the coming weeks. 

This means that members are asked to return to work as of Friday 9th May. It also importantly means that management have agreed to not take any strike deductions from all members who participated in strike action. 

This decision does not prevent the branch from entering into future disputes or obtaining a mandate for further action.

The offer represents a win in that it gives staff currently in scope within the ongoing PS restructures more time for posts to be made available through redeployment, or to have their jobs defended through negotiation. While it does not guarantee that there will be no compulsory redundancies, this deal does make it more likely in practice that individuals will avoid being made redundant, and represents a significant move in management’s position prior to our dispute and action.

Advice on Returning to Work Tomorrow and Next Week

We know that calling off action may leave many members feeling overwhelmed with work commitments that they were not expecting to face this week and next. It is crucial that every one of us takes care of ourselves and does not take on the impossible (and unhealthy) task of trying to prepare for everything coming next week in a single day. There is preparatory time which has been missed, and there are simply not enough hours to make up for that time. 

It is important that all members assert their contracted terms which for many includes a nominal 35-hour working week, and do not volunteer substantial amounts of labour above and beyond that which they are contractually obliged to. Working in line with our contracts is a basic labour right which does not need the cover of an ASOS mandate.

Almost every member will have slightly different circumstances and we cannot provide concrete advice on every case, but we suggest that all of you follow the below three guiding principles:

1. Please continue to work to contract. This means not working beyond your usual hours, working over the weekend, or trying to complete several days of work within a single day. 

2. Your line manager may ask you to prioritise certain types of work, up to a certain point. Such instructions should be made with recognition that planned action has been called off at short notice, and it should be in keeping with the general nature of your job (for example, research staff who teach a little should not be asked to spend a significant amount of time replacing any lost learning, and staff who normally only spend a small part of their day replying to student emails should not be asked to clear a week to deal with a long backlog at the expense of all other duties). Managers should also be clear about the work you are not expected to tackle, in order to make space for priority tasks. 

3. You cannot do everything, and that is okay. Some things may not happen to the standard they normally would, and some things may not happen at all. Your line manager should be able to assist and support you, and many line managers are themselves UCU members who will be navigating a similarly abrupt return. 

For members in student facing roles, remember that our students overwhelmingly support us. Just as we were going to ask for their understanding and support in taking strike action this week, we can ask for their understanding and support as we unexpectedly navigate days we did not think we would be working, as well as in any rescheduling of missed activities.

Advice on Rescheduling Teaching

Whilst members have voted to accept the University’s offer to not deduct strike pay in return for members replacing and rescheduling lost work as appropriate and practicable within a reasonable time period. We know this may put some members in difficult positions, and we want to offer some advice, as well as the more general advice offered above. 

It is the Committee’s position that staff cannot be forced to replace like for like activities if this is not possible within the context of staff’s contracts and the remaining time available in the term. 

We will be expecting some advice from Heads of School to go to staff in terms of how to prioritise particular lost learning and activities. We anticipate that management will ask staff to prioritise final-year teaching. We ask that members get in touch if they feel this is in conflict with the principles offered above, or if they feel under particular and unreasonable pressure.

Staff have substantial protection from unsafe workload pressures due to health and safety law. Anyone asked to reschedule teaching should be given the same level of support they would be for normally timetabled teaching, including in finding a time that the registered students can attend, as well as a space for the teaching to occur. With workloads already very high, and only two weeks left before the end of the teaching period, we consider that it will be very difficult in most cases for management to facilitate this without creating a workload crunch point. This would lead to an unacceptable situation unless other tasks related to the teaching portion of the workload are explicitly deprioritised. Again, if members are asked to do more than they feel they can in the time available to them, they should get in touch with us.

Next steps

Whilst this is a win, something which should not be under-emphasised, we recognise that this is only a temporary and partial victory in what is a longer fight and period of uncertainty for the University community. We plan to discuss our next steps as a branch very soon as to how we navigate this into the next academic year.

We will continue to do everything we can to pressure management into avoiding compulsory redundancies and other reductions to staff budgets as part of our ongoing negotiations with management. However it is critical that we remain prepared to take additional strong industrial action over the coming year.

We would like to thank members for their support and solidarity, as well as the incredibly hard work put in by our reps, negotiators, and committee members over the past weeks and months.