Following the strong vote for industrial action our employer has finally agreed to Dispute Resolution meeting. This will be held on 4 March 2026, replacing a consultation meeting which was already scheduled, and we welcome the opportunity to try and resolve this dispute.

Unfortunately, the employer chose to make a number of potentially misleading comments about the dispute and upcoming industrial action at the Townhall meeting on 25 February 2026. We would like to reassure members about a couple of the points raised.

Timeline

The branch notified of a Failure to Agree on 28 November 2025 following a members’ meeting at which the action was agreed. We then moved to a formal industrial dispute on 8 December 2025 after the employer failed to deliver the assurances which were requested in that FTA, most notably not ruling out formal redundancies, again, as approved at a members’ meeting. We started to prepare for a ballot and notified the employer of this on 18 December 2025. The ballot opened on 5 January 2026 and closed on 16 February 2026.

Through this whole process our employers could have recognised the need for Dispute Resolution and agreed to meet with us to seek agreement and settle the dispute. They chose not to do so. The first offer of a Dispute Resolution meeting on 16 March 2026 was only made this week – a full 17 weeks after the Failure to Agree was issued. This has now been brought forward to 4 March 2026 to afford the opportunity of resolving the dispute before strike action commences.

We do not agree with the assertion that UCU acted prematurely. At every point in this process we have acted in full compliance with Heriot-Watt policy, employment law, and best practice.

Membership density

There is significant strength of feeling about these issues among members and non members alike. We have had record attendance at recent members’ meetings, lots of new joiners, and a record turnout in the ballot for industrial action.

It was misleading of the university leadership to try and play down the validity these concerns by quoting our membership density relative to the entire global staff of the university. Our bargaining group is limited to staff at Grade 6 or above who are based in the UK where membership of a trade union is not illegal.

Join UCU today

We are in a stronger position than the university leadership would like to admit and our membership continues to grow. If you are not already a member please consider joining today at https://www.ucu.org.uk/join.