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University and College Union (UCU) industrial action

27 Jan 2023

A message from Adèle MacKinlay, Director of People and Organisational Development

UCU industrial action

We received confirmation from UCU that they will be taking further industrial action over two disputes in relation to pay and working conditions* and the USS pension.  

The industrial action will include 18 days of strikes with the first taking place on Wednesday, 1 February 2023. UCU continue to take action short of a strike which commenced in November 2022.

UCU have confirmed they will take further strike action on the following dates:

  • Week 2 – Thursday, 9 and Friday, 10 February
  • Week 3 – Tuesday, 14, Wednesday, 15 and Thursday, 16 February
  • Week 4 – Tuesday, 21, Wednesday, 22 and Thursday, 23 February
  • Week 5 – Monday, 27 and Tuesday, 28 February and Wednesday, 1 and Thursday, 2 March
  • Week 6 – Thursday, 16 and Friday, 17 March
  • Week 7 – Monday, 20, Tuesday, 21 and Wednesday, 22 March

We understand how important pay and working conditions, and indeed pensions, are to you and we do take these concerns very seriously. As you know, pay and the USS pension agreements are negotiated nationally, by UCEA and UUK respectively. As with all HEIs, we input into these discussions and decisions.

There is a legal right to strike, and we appreciate the difficult and challenging times in which we are living, and we are taking active steps to support our staff and students.

At the same time, we must be there for our students and minimise the impact of action on any teaching and learning. We are not asking those who take action to work extra hours, but we are asking you to prioritise lost student teaching and marking over other work which can be deferred.

Detailed guidance is available to help navigate and mitigate against disruption and we will update this guidance with information on the strike reporting process and deadlines as soon as possible.

We have also published guidance which covers what to do if you are unable to attend work due to rail and teaching strikes.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact either myself or Andrew Mullen.

Adèle MacKinlay

Director of People and Organisational Development

Further information: 

* By ‘working conditions’, UCU are referring to pay gaps, workloads, incidence of fixed terms contracts and “casual” employment arrangements.