To University and College Union (UCU) Members

20 Nov 2014

You will be aware that the University and College Union (UCU) had indicated that they have been taking continuous industrial "action short of a strike" in the form of an assessment and marking boycott commencing on 6 November 2014. This particular action was called by UCU in response to the national employers’ proposals for changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS)

I am very pleased to write to inform you that UCU today confirmed a suspension of all industrial action called by them in relation to their USS dispute from 20 November until after 15 January 2015.

The suspension has been agreed between UCU and UUK in order to allow a period of intense negotiation with the aim of seeking an agreement on reforms to the USS. We are pleased at this development and hope that this gives both parties the opportunity to explore an agreed solution in the negotiations.  

Under the terms of UCU’s agreement with UUK, the 66 affected universities have been asked to confirm that they will not be applying their policies on the withholding of pay for breach of contract in respect of any individuals who actually participated between 6 and 19 November on the condition that those individuals make up all work missed, wherever possible, in a reasonable period of time.

The University of Manchester has agreed that no member of staff who has previously indicated they were taking such action will have their pay deducted. This agreement is made on the basis that, at this point, individual members of staff who were participating in the industrial action will have been able to remedy, within a reasonable time scale, any backlog of work that actually resulted from the industrial action between 6 to 20 November.

We are delighted that as a result our students will not have been adversely impacted and are very hopeful that this will now allow time for a joint proposal for reform that offers an affordable and sustainable pension scheme that remains attractive for both current and future members.   

If you have any queries about this then please refer to AskHR.

Karen  Heaton
Director of Human Resources