Category Archives: Pay

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.

Members’ Meeting 10 May

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There will be an online meeting on Wednesday 10 May from 12.00 to 1.00 to vote on wage sharing motions and discuss the ongoing MAB.

Discussion with HWU management are yet to produce a shift in their position on deductions but we remain hopeful. For members who have any questions or concerns you can contact your local school rep or email hwgtvo2022@gmail.com in confidence.

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.

 

Members’ Meeting 27 April

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There will be an online meeting on Thursday 27 April from 3.30 to 4.30 to discuss the practicalities of staging a successful the marking and assessment boycott and how we should react to the disproportionate salary deductions announced by Heriot-Watt. We will be voting on motions so it is important that as many members attend as possible.

Zoom links have been sent by email. For a reminder please contact your rep or one of the officers on the branch committee.

If you need BSL interpreting please contact marion.fletcher@hw.ac.uk to arrange. If you need to speak to us about anything else, or if you need advice or reassurance about anything related to the MAB please contact us in confidence at HWGTVO2022@gmail.com.

Guide to the Marking and Assessment Boycott

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UCU members at 145 institutions are taking part in the national Marking and Assessment Boycott (MAB) which began on Thursday 20 April. The boycott covers the marking of all assessed work and associated administrative activities, and also assessment-related work such as exam invigilation and the processing of marks.

Comprehensive information about what is involved can be found at UCU – Marking and assessment boycott FAQs along with a downloadable MAB Guide and a video about preparing for the marking and assessment boycott.

Deductions

Heriot-Watt have notified that they will deduct 100% from anyone taking part in the MAB but then pay back 50% of wages as a goodwill gesture in the anticipation that staff will continue to work. While staff are in boycott all work will be considered voluntary and staff will not be subject to discipline if they choose to do less than their normal hours.

The reason for this lies in interpretation of the law but it is clearly excessive relative to the amount of work involved. You can log into https://www.ucu.org.uk/ASOS-deductions to discover more about the legal position and download a template letter for challenging the basis of these punitive deductions.

The advice from UCU national is that staff should continue to work normal hours except for any marking duties. This is based on the premise that staff may eventually be able to claim back for deductions that are unfair and excessive.

In the meantime we will be putting pressure on the employer to reconsider these unfair attacks on staff, and escalating to strike action if necessary.

You should not go onto this until it is clear you are in boycott i.e. you have declared your participation.

Declaring participation

If you are asked whether you are taking part you must answer truthfully but you only have to say whether you are in boycott at that moment or have been in the past. HR have issued a form for this purpose and it is up to members to decide when is the most appropriate time to declare. Heriot-Watt have said that they may backdate any deductions to the day marking was ‘allocated’. If this happens to you and you think the date chosen is arbitrary or unfair please contact the branch for advice. It is important to remember that you do not have to notify of your intention in advance, and you have the right to change your mind at any moment.

Members are not obliged to specify which types or marking they are boycotting, just that they are taking part in the MAB. Members are not obliged to give information about action which they have not taken so the end date can be left blank in most cases 1 and the form can be returned without a signature as we have been advised by UCU that this is not required in law. If you take annual leave while in boycott you are entitled to full pay on those days. You will be similarly entitled to sick pay, maternity pay, contractual rest days and TOIL. You should include details of all leave in your declaration.

1 The exception to is is where you are only boycotting a one day event such as an exam board, and not otherwise involved in marking and assessment. In this case you should indicate that you were boycott for only a single day by letting them know on that day or afterwards that you were in boycott for that single day with a start date and an end date.

Migrant Workers

If you are on a Tier 2 / Skilled Worker visa please contact a branch rep about declaring participation. Your right to participate in industrial action is protected but the guidance for declaring is a little different.

In boycott

If you are pressured to work or do any particular tasks after you have declared that you are in boycott you should ask for confirmation in writing that you are being asked to work and will be paid for this work as normal. If this happens please let the branch know.

Not in boycott

If you are not in boycott and you are asked to do marking that is not yours, you should refuse. This will not count as joining the boycott. This is normal ASOS and you cannot be deducted, so it does not need to be declared. If you feel in any way pressured please let the branch know.

Ending the boycott

Depending on your own individual circumstances the boycott will end when:

  • The current mandate ends or the dispute is stood down. Employers can end this tabling a new offer on pay on working conditions. That is all it will take.
  • The single day event you were boycotting has passed
  • There is no marking allocated to you and no possibility of further marking or assessment (exam setting) being assigned to you at this point e.g. you marking has been done and the boards have passed and there is nothing left to mark i.e. there is nothing that you could refuse to do and you have therefore returned to your normal duties. If in doubt please contact the branch.
  • You are on annual leave, parental, maternity, rest day, agreed TOIL, or off sick.

Financial support

If you are eligible to apply to the national fighting fund for strike days taken between November and March, please apply now with your April payslip if all deductions have been taken so that you have some money to offset MAB deductions.

Support will also be available from the local hardship fund and we will post more information about this in due course.

How can I help?

You can help by donating to the branch hardship fund or by pledging a donation or series of donations to help support colleagues who are in the MAB and facing weeks of punitive deductions. Further information on how to pledge financial support will follow.

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.

If you are not already a member why not join the UCU today. We all help each other and there are opportunities range from simply being a sympathetic ear, through to campaigning and fundraising, and representing members as a caseworker or health and safety rep. It is a great opportunity to meet lots of new people and and do something really fulfilling. Full training is provided.

Members’ Meeting to discuss Marking and Assessment Boycott

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Following the recent electronic consultation on the employers’ proposals it has been confirmed that there were majority votes in favour of noting the proposal in the pensions dispute and rejecting the proposal in the pay and conditions dispute.

This means that the marking and assessment boycott (MAB) will start on 20 April 2023 as planned. If you haven’t had a chance to attend one of assessment and marking boycott training sessions you can watch the recording on YouTube and download the accompanying presentation and delivery notes. For further information please see the marking and assessment boycott FAQs and the UCU MAB Guide for 2023.

Branch reps met with HR earlier today to discuss the MAB. The early indications are that management are planning to deduct 50% of salary for participation in the MAB. This still needs to be confirmed by the University Executive but it would be a punitive measure, and significantly more than the 30% that was deducted in summer 2022.

We will be discussing all of this in an online branch member’s meeting on Tuesday 18 April at 3.30. Zoom links for the meeting have been sent by email. Please join the meeting to have your say and help us plan for another effective MAB at Heriot-Watt. On Thursday branch representatives will attend a national special sector conference.

 

HEC recommend reject on 4F and note on USS

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The emails have started to arrive.This is a formal consultation which has been called by our Higher Education Committee (HEC).

Please read the proposals, the recommendations from our HEC, and the reports from our negotiators. The HEC has recommended reject on the Four Fights and to note on the USS. For the purpose of this consultation note means stand down action on USS for now but keep the mandate so we can strike at the beginning of next session if satisfactory progress has not been made. This is independent of on-going action on pay and conditions. HEC’s reasoning is explained in the email with reference to the supporting documentation. It is in line with branch position and the previous consultative survey.

This is your dispute, so please have your say. The vote will be open until 10am on Monday 17 April.

We did it!

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Today we smashed the ballot thresholds in both of the pension and pay and conditions disputes, renewing our mandate for another 6 months.

In the pension ballot, the yes vote was 89% on a turnout 58.4%. In the pay and conditions ballot, 85.6% on a turnout of 56.4%. The Yes vote is up in both disputes.

Follow-up consultation

Members will now be consulted on how to proceed in both disputes via an electronic consultation.

There has been progress but no offer in the pension dispute and the recommendation from Higher Education Committee (HEC) is that members should vote to note backed by the renewed mandate which will allow us to resume strike action after the employer consultation later this year if necessary. The most recent indications are that the full restoration of benefits is affordable.

HEC recommends that members reject the proposals in the 4-Fights dispute over pay and conditions. A yes vote would see no further improvement in the pay offer for this year or next and we would not be able to further industrial action until February 2024 due to pre-conditions on negotiation imposed by the employer.

The HEC recommendations are consistent with the branch position established at the recent quorate member meeting.

When you do receive the consultation email, please take the time to read the reports from the negotiators and consider the options.

Response to email from the Principal

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I would like to respond to the Principal Richard A Williams comments in the staff update email about industrial action from Tuesday 23 March.

The Principal describes his disappointment that the Higher Education Committee appears to have ignored the wishes of members. This is simply not the case. E-ballots are informal and BDMs are advisory. HEC decided that the offer was not enough of an improvement to be formally put to members. This is representative democracy.

Pausing action to put every offer directly to members in a formal ballot only encourages employers to make a series of meaningless offers in order to disrupt a dispute and kill the momentum of industrial action.

Members had already voted overwhelmingly to reject the pay offer in the previous snap e-ballot and little progress has been made on equality, casualisation, and workloads.

UCEA are also demanding that UCU agree to stand down industrial action for a year as a pre-condition of entering into further talks.

If the Principal would like to talk about ignoring survey results how about we start with recent staff satisfaction surveys where the need for better leadership/management is consistently one of the most commented themes, along with better pay and progression and more manageable workloads.

 

Still here and still waiting

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Great show today by the pickets, our student supporters, and the starfish of solidarity.

This is the final day of this block of industrial action and we are still here. Still waiting for a decent pay rise and still waiting for a proper deal on workloads, casualisation and the yawning pay gaps at Heriot-Watt University.