Category Archives: Pay

Emergency Members’ meeting to discuss pay negotiations July 2024

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Pay negotiators from UCU and the other unions in the higher education sector have been meeting with Universities and Colleges Employers’ Association (UCEA) over the past few weeks to try and reach agreement on the 2024-25 claim on pay and conditions.

The heads of the claim can be viewed at HE Negotiations 2024-25 and negotiators need to know what members think about the latest proposals ahead of a branch delegate meeting (BDM) at extreme short notice on Tuesday 2 July.

Confirmation of UCEA’s pay ‘offer’ and the questions to be considered by branches have been circulated to members by email.

A link to the branch Zoom meeting on Tuesday 2 July at 12.45 at which they will be discussed has been also been circulated.

Please review the negotiators’ report and the questions and join the meeting to vote on the questions so that our branch delegates can bring your views to the BDM later in the day. Proxy voting is not allowed but if you would like your views to be considered please contact the branch by email with a short note which can be read out at the meeting, or contact a committee member or your school or service rep and let them know your views.

 

Have you voted Yes to save higher education?

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On 14 August the UCU’s higher education committee (HEC) voted to launch a ballot for further industrial action in the ongoing dispute over pay and working conditions.

The ballot closes at 5pm on Friday 3 November. If you have not received your ballot paper please request a replacement using the form at https://yoursay.ucu.org.uk/s3/ucuRISING-ballotupdate before midnight on Sunday 29 October.

Why should I vote?

Taking part in industrial action works. We got our employers back to the negotiating table in the pension dispute and a statutory consultation on improved terms has been launched which should see the scheme on a more stable footing with benefits restored back to pre-2022 levels and members compensated for benefits lost in the meantime.

This only happened because members took action to prevent the shameful attempt to steal their pension benefits through a flawed valuation conducted at the height of the pandemic.

We need to keep fighting now to secure fair pay and tackle working conditions. Our university vice chancellors and senior management have been taking huge salaries and inflation busting pay rises while our members have seen pay cut by 25% in real terms since 2009 as they struggle to deal with inequality, job security, and the stress of ever increasing workloads.

It is more important than ever that you use your vote so that we meet the threshold which legislation requires, no matter which way you vote. If you haven’t voted, please vote now.

Heriot-Watt is on strike for fair pay and working conditions

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Monday

Our employers may consider the 2022-23 pay negotiations to have been concluded with the imposed national uplift, but we do not. It fell far short. The 4-Fights dispute over fair pay and working conditions will continue until the Vice Chancellors use some of the record income that the sector is generating and the piles cash on which they are sitting to address the erosion of everyone else’s pay apart from their own and tackle the issues of excessive workloads, inequality, and insecure contracts.

We are on strike because we care passionately about our students, our stakeholders and research partners, our local community, and the environment. Our senior leadership team are failing to deliver on Strategy 2025 and the key performance indicators by which they should be judged. Staff and student satisfaction is at an all-time low, student to staff ratios are increasing, teaching and research facilities are inadequate, and our support systems are a shambles. These failures are reflected in our rankings and failures to secure funding. Shamelessly executive pay has increased, and it is the same up and down the country. It is the experience which should be rich, not the fat cats at the top.

You can help make it better. Support our staff. Support our students. Save the planet. Support the strike!

Strike action confirmed for week of 25-29 September

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A big thank-you to all of the local members who were able to attend the online EGM yesterday and contribute to the discussions and vote at such short notice. The meeting was quorate and the vote was overwhelmingly in favour of continuing the strike action, consistent with the branch position at the end of August when members voted in favour of using the remaining mandate for strike action.

It is the beginning of a new session and no-one wants to be on strike but we need to hit our employers hard in order to force them back into negotiations over pay and working conditions. The only way to do this is with a complete withdrawal of labour. We will be standing with UCU members from branches up and down the UK as well as colleagues from Unite and Unison who remain committed to collective action as a means to secure fair pay and working conditions across the sector.

Picket line

The picket will form 8.00am each morning at the main gate and there with a group photo opportunity at 10.00am.

Strike Pay

Members will be able to apply to the national fighting fund for days 3,4 and 5 of the strike. We will take a vote to the branch members to enable the local hardship fund to be used to support members for days 1 and 2.

 

 

Emergency Members’ Meeting 19 September 2023

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We will be holding and online Emergency Members’ Meeting via Zoom at 4.00pm on Tuesday 19 September 2023 to consult branch members about next week’s strike action over pay and working conditions as requested by UCU national.

Please check your inbox for the link to the meeting.

We will try to keep it short with a brief introduction from the branch committee that sets out the current position with all the relevant information. Make no mistake, our employers and UCEA are continuing to try and sit this out with little regard for staff and student welfare, or academic standards. After this there will be an opportunity for questions, clarification, and debate. We will move to voting as close to 4.30pm as possible.

After any votes there will be some time for a more general discussion on how to progress the dispute both locally and nationally, and what we might want to feed back to UCU national.

There will be an opportunity to raise and discuss other issues relating to working at HWU under AOB at the end of the meeting.

It is very short notice but it is very important that you attend and have your say at a quorate meeting. Please attend if at all possible.

MAB withdrawn and new strike days announced

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Following a consultative e-ballot with the membership UCU national have announced that Marking and Assessment Boycott has been withdrawn as of 6 September 2023.

With the MAB called off members can resume marking duties and the setting of assessments but only as and when it fits in around other demands at work. If your manager or anyone else at work tries to pressure you into doing work immediately or in an unrealistic time frame given other jobs, please contact your local rep.

School reps will be meeting with mangers to discuss which marking is and is not required, the order in which it will be done and how it is fit around other work in what is already a very bus time of year. We are still working ASOS and no-one should be working beyond their contracted hours.

This will be the first time that our employers have not returned wages in return for marking.

If you have queries about the number of days deducted please get in touch with your local rep. That is has been so difficult to implement highlights that our employer should not have applied such a draconian and punitive policy, deducting far in excess of the hours required. It also demonstrates the ongoing inability of the ERP and Finance to deliver the most basic of functionality.

For those who have been deducted we have a local hardship fund to top up payments from the national fighting fund. If you need to claim, please do.

There is also scope for legal action to recover wages on the basis that they have been deducted unfairly. UCU have circulated further information on the legal action that can be taken to challenge unfair MAB deductions and claims have already started at other branches. Members affected are asked to use this proforma UCU – ASOS/MAB – Questionnaire (member login required).

Strike days

Our employers have been notified of 5 full days of strike action to take place between 25 and 29 September 2023.

We deserve a fair wage, secure employment, and an end to pay gaps. Our members have shown great resilience, perseverance, and courage throughout this dispute. It is bitterly disappointing that UCEA has decided to sit this out regardless of the consequences for staff, students, and academic standards. We should not let the employers get away with this.

A ballot to secure a fresh mandate to continue the dispute and take the fight to the employer will follow.

 

Summer of Sharing

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Financial support for HWU members taking part in the MAB will be provided through a mix of claims from the national fighting fund and local salary sharing.Please pledge your support for salary sharing at https://forms.gle/wK5Hu6SpsJfCCHbi8

You will also find an option to leave a message of support for our MABbers.

Messages of support

Thank you. You are fighting to make a difference for everyone at HWU and in HE.
– SJ

MAB not relevant to my role but we are all in this together and totally up for wage sharing if that’s what it takes.
– John S

 

National Fighting Fund

The national Fighting Fund will cover members who have been deducted 50% pay for partial performance as follows:

  • £30 for each day for those earning £30,000 or more per annum;
  • up to £45 for each day for those earning less than £30,000 per annum

Payments are currently capped at 9 days from 1 May 2023. More information about eligibility and how to apply can be found in the latest HE Disputes Guidance guidance issued by the the UCU.

Salary Sharing

The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the UCU has agreed that salary sharing within and between branches will be the main local method of supporting members facing deductions.

We aim to support members at the same rate for any additional days before or after 1 May 2023 and provide top-up payments in cases of exceptional need for anyone who has been deducted, or not paid if a casualised worker.

Donations

We have had a fantastic response to our A Day’s Pay in May appeal for donations to our hardship fund including donations from HW Unite and Napier. If you have yet to donate, and you can afford to, please do.

Pledges

We now need to plan for the long haul. Until we can persuade the senior leadership team at HWU to suspend punitive deductions we will be asking staff who are not engaged in the MAB to pledge a portion of their salary to support those who are.

The suggested pledge is for 3 day’s pay in June (circa.10% salary) and then the same each month until deductions are suspended. Pledges will only be called in if they required to service requests made on the hardship fund. Suggested net daily donations per grade are listed below. Please do not pledge more than you can afford to give.

G6 £56
G7 £72
G8 £85
G9 £96
G10 £105

This guidance will be updated if threatened deduction amounts are changed.

A Day’s Pay in May

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Tomorrow is pay day and we are asking members and colleagues who are not taking part in the boycott to donate the equivalent of a net day of pay to support those who are facing deductions for taking part in the Marking and Assessment Boycott.

The first deductions will be taken out of May’s pay and for a number of members these will be substantial due to the unnecessarily harsh stance taken by Heriot-Watt University.

Participating members will be deducted at the punitive rate of 50%, which is far in excess of the time allocated for marking. The deductions will be applied from one week before the marking was due and will run open-ended for 7 days per week (except for when leave has been booked) until the marking is done or the dispute is settled.

This action is being taken to improve pay and conditions for everyone, so lets give generously to support our colleagues. We cannot let our own members be bullied into undoing their own actions by these excessive and unfair deductions.

Details of how to donate can be found on the branch website at https://heriotwatt.web.ucu.org.uk/donate/ and the more people who donate the lighter the load on each of us.

Please circulate this among non-members and remind them of the value of collective action and sacrifice which has already seen significant movement in the restoration of our USS benefits.

You can also contact to your MP/MSP and urge them to write to the Principal and demand that he withdraw his threats and work with the unions to reach a settlement.

Guidance for donations

  1. No member should put themselves into debt or hardship in order to donate.
  2. Members who are boycotting, student members, those on casualised contracts and/or employed part-time at G6 or full-time G5 (and below) are not expected to donate.
  3. Members on fractional (part-time) contracts should pro rata any donations in line with their contract. So, “a day’s pay” on a 0.5 contract would be half a day’s pay.
  4. Those wishing to support the MAB financially are encouraged to:
    • Donate a day’s net pay on 31st May, equivalent to what they would lose if they had been on strike for a day, to the Branch hardship fund.
    • Pledge at least 3 further day’s pay in June (circa.10% pay) to be donated if required, and then the same each month for the full duration of the boycott. We will set up a form for pledges in June.
  5. Amounts pledged will only be called in if deductions are made and calls are made on the hardship fund, such that they are required. The suggested net daily donation per grade is as follows:
    G6 £56
    G7 £72
    G8 £85
    G9 £96
    G10 £105
  6. This guidance will be updated if threatened deduction amounts are changed.

Draft text for writing to MSPs on MAB deductions

 Dear

You will be aware members of the University and College Union (UCU) are currently campaigning for long overdue improvements to pay and working conditions. Having taken strike action in recent months staff are back at work full time but have begun a marking and assessment boycott which will impact on a range of activities including exam invigilation and the processing of marks.

You may not be aware that vice-chancellors and principals across the UK are, on the recommendation of the employer body Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA), now threatening to deduct up to 100% of staff wages even though  staff are still  at work and carrying out most of their duties, including teaching, lecturing, researching and supporting students.

Making such punitive salary deductions is not only deeply vindictive but also counter-productive. These threats will not bring the dispute closer to a resolution and risk worsening any disruption. Administering these excessively punitive attacks on local staff taking part in a national dispute is a poor use of a university’s time and resources. 

Staff are the backbone of our universities and they dedicate their working lives to supporting students and ensuring they can get the best out of their time studying. They deserve to be treated with respect at work. They do not deserve to be on the receiving end of such disproportionately massive deductions during a cost-of-living crisis.

I am urging you to write to the Principal of Heriot-Watt University, Richard Williams at R.A.Williams@hw.ac.uk and demand that they withdraw the threats against their own staff and instead use their influence with UCEA to resolve the disputes as quickly as possible.

I would also like to draw your attention to the attack on students’ education by the employers who have decided to bypass academic quality processes which could affect students’ future employment. Staff at Heriot-Watt have organised an open letter to raise concerns about the university’s response to the Marking and Assessment Boycott. A link to the open letter and further information can be found at  https://forms.gle/ZBnEtZYziko7jooV9

Yours sincerely

 

Marking and Assessment Boycott update: What to record and how to support

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Update: UCU have confirmed that the national fighting fund will be open to members who are being hit with deductions of 50% or more for backing the boycott. More details to follow.

It is becoming clear from the actions being taken by some employers, including our own, to deter members from taking part in the MAB, and from the adoption of emergency measures which will potentially undermine quality of degrees being awarded, that they are worried about the effect that it is having.

This makes the MAB a very effective lever for getting UCEA back to the negotiating table. Analysis of university finances shows that the employers can afford to make an improved pay offer despite their claims to the contrary.

We need to keep the pressure up so that this worry leads to action aimed at settling the dispute.

Challenging unfair deductions

Heriot-Watt are among the worst of university employers, deducting 100% from any employees taking part in the MAB while simultaneously demonstrating their largesse with a 50% ex-gratia payment for work deemed to be undertaken on a volutary basis. Instead of being limited to the assessement and marking window, like many other institutions, this will run until the mandate for industrial action expires or the dispute ends.

It is, we are told, a deliberately disproportionate and punitive response designed to discourage staff from participating in the MAB. The very same staff who excel in research, pioneer in education, and contribute to communities by driving economic impact and contributing to growth.

In relation to this have received the following advice from the regional office about the sort of information which members should gather and record in relation to unfair and excessive deductions.

Members should keep evidence of the actual work they are doing during the periods of the pay deductions, so a diary, outlook calendars, notes of work they are doing (and any evidence – eg the reports they may be producing, tutoring notes etc) along with payslips outlining deductions. We’ll need members who have a bank of evidence of the work they’ve done, the pay slip with deductions, to assess and have the opportunity for this to be taken in a legal challenge.

Members should also keep a record of any PDR processes they have participated in.

It is important to note that any legal challenges could only be raised after we have exhausted the local grievance process, for which the same evidence would also be required to prove that members have been working and that their work outwith marking duties takes up normal hours.

Financial support

We would like to reassure members that the branch will be able to offer financial support to members who are impacted by deductions. While we hope to minimise deductions and if possible to get deductions back eventually, we are not relying on it. The branch hardship fund is there to support you. We will circulating more information towards the end of the month when we have been told that the first deductions will be made from members who declared participation in the MAB before the 12th May.

How can I help?

Not everyone can pariticipate in the MAB but there are other ways you can support the action and help members who are taking part:

  1. Continue working to contact as part of the ongoing Action Short of Strike (ASOS) and do not take on voluntary tasks.
  2. If you are asked to do marking that is not yours, please refuse. This does not constitute a boycott but it is very important that you do not ‘help out’ boycotting staff by doing their marking for them. Please let the branch know if you have been asked to do someone else’s marking.
  3. Donate a Day’s Pay in May. The UCU National Executive Committee (NEC) has agreed that salary sharing within and between branches should be the main method of supporting members facing deductions. Members who are not losing wages for taking part in the MAB, especially those who were not significantly financially impacted by the recent wave of strikes, are asked to donate a day’s net pay to the branch Hardship Fund on the 31st May (next pay day) if they can afford to. For the initial fundraiser we are asking for donations so we can offer everyone who is taking part something towards their losses. From June onwards we will be looking for pledges of on-going support which can be called on if the unfair deductions continue. More information will follow.
  4. Please sign this open letter to the Heriot-Watt Senior Leadership Team about Assessment and Award Boards.

Branch members’ meeting

The next online meeting is on Wednesday 24 May from 12.00 to 1.00.

Zoom links have been sent by email. Please attend if you can. If you need a reminder please contact your rep or one of the officers on the branch committee.

If you have any questions or concerns about the MAB please contact your local school rep or email hwgtvo2022@gmail.com in confidence.

 

Information about the Marking and Assessment Boycott for Students

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The start of a national Marking and Assessment Boycott (MAB) was notified to employers from 20 April 2023. We hope that the action will bring our employers represented by the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) back to the negotiating table with an improved offer on pay and working conditions. So far there has been no movement. UCEA say that working conditions are largely a local issue which have to be negotiated with university management, university management say it is a national issue which is out of their hands.

How does it work?

A marking boycott works by interrupting the processes of the highly commodified degree awarding model that the university management have adopted. It does this by delaying the delivery of grades and graduation. University should be about education, intellectual development and earning a degree rather than simply purchasing a product.

Staff who are participating in the boycott will cease to participate in marking and assessment activity for the duration of the boycott. This is a delay, not a cancellation. Staff will resume when an acceptable offer has been made and the industrial action ends.

It is important to remember that this is a marking boycott, not a learning boycott. Staff will continue to:

  • Support potential students who are interested in taking up offers
  • Support students who have job applications by writing references giving indications of past and projected performance. You should always contact your personal tutor first before giving their name as referee.
  • Support international students on time sensitive visas
  • Provide informal advice and feedback on assignments and submissions.

How have the university management responded?

The university has notified that they will only pay 50% of the salary of anyone taking part in the boycott until they return to normal work. This is an excessive and unfair deduction which is designed to punish and intimidate in order to discourage participation in the boycott. Many of our staff are now working as normal except for marking duties but will only receive half pay until the dispute is resolved or the university management agree stop punitive deductions.

The university management team are also planning to invoke emergency measures which were developed in response to the covid crisis. This will see awards which do not accurately reflect student effort and achievement, undermining the value and integrity of degrees awarded at Heriot-Watt campuses in the UK, and also with certifying and accrediting bodies.

In awarding degrees based on incomplete assessment students will be denied the opportunity to demonstrate their full potential. This impact on parity between degrees earned at our different international campuses.

What can students do?

You can help change the direction of this dispute. The university management team are choosing not to use their influence with UCEA to improve the pay and working conditions of staff and end the dispute.

Please write to Malcolm Chrisp (Deputy Principal Education and Student Life) at T.M.Chrisp@hw.ac.uk and ask that university management:

  • Pressure UCEA to end the dispute by engaging in meaningful negotiations
  • Donate any deducted wages to the student hardship fund

If you feel your course learning outcomes have not been met due to the University’s inaction in appropriately mitigating disruption, you may have cause to submit a formal complaint.