University and College Union (UCU) further industrial action

08 Mar 2022

Pay and working conditions

On Friday (4 March), we received confirmation from UCU that they will be taking further industrial action over USS pension, pay and other working conditions*. 

We are not part of the industrial action on USS. At our University action is in respect of pay and working conditions, where the vote in November last year, just exceeded the legal threshold for action (50.4%). In total 728 staff voted in favour of such action. We have over 12,000 staff across the University.

UCU industrial action will take the form of discontinuous strikes on 28, 29, 30 and 31 March, 1 April. Action short of a strike, as we were previously notified, will continue ending no later than 3 May 2022. 

We recognise that there are a number of elements that impact our wellbeing and experience of work. We absolutely understand how important pay and working conditions, and indeed pensions, are to colleagues and we take these views and concerns very seriously. 

We also recognise the right of colleagues to take this action but continue to be extremely concerned about the impact on our whole community, particularly on our students who have suffered so much over recent years.

We would remind staff and line managers of the detailed guidance available to help navigate and mitigate against any disruption. Details for students are also available.

In particular, we’d like to reassure our students that we will do everything we can to minimise any impact on their teaching, learning and wider experience and will of course keep colleagues fully informed of any developments.

Strike declaration

• Staff members taking strike action must self-declare using the Strike day reporting form by the end of Friday, 11 March.
• Staff members taking action short of a strike (ASOS) should complete the Action short of a strike reporting form 
• Guidance on reporting strike action

Colleagues are reminded to complete the relevant form for previous strike action taken on 21, 22, 28 February, and 1, 2 March. All strike declarations from previous strikes must be submitted by Wednesday, 9 March.

* By ‘working conditions’, UCU are referring to pay gaps, workloads and casual employment

Adèle MacKinlay

Director of People and Organisational Development

Further information

• Pay and pensions are negotiated nationally.
• In the recent re-ballot on changes to the USS pension arrangement announced on 18 January 2022, our turnout was 47.77% of eligible UCU members, so failed to reach the legal 50% threshold required to give a mandate for strike action. 84% (836 staff) of those who voted were in favour of strike action; about 6,300 members of our staff are USS members.
• In November 2021, in a separate vote on pay and working conditions, the turnout of eligible UCU members was 50.4%, so just exceeding the 50% threshold. 74% (728 staff) of those voting in this ballot were in favour of strike action. We have a total of over 12,000 staff across the University all of whom are affected by pay and conditions.