Important update about strike action

This message was sent as all-staff email on Thursday 18 November.

Dear colleagues, 

We have now received formal notification that the University & College Union (UCU) is instructing members to take three days of strike action from Wednesday 1 December to Friday 3 December. 

It has also given notice of continuous action short of strike (ASOS) commencing from 1 December 2021 and finishing no later than 3 May 2022. At this stage, the UCU has defined ASOS as working to contract and not volunteering to do more. 

As I’ve emphasised before, I fully understand that pension reform is a really significant issue for colleagues, but I do think it is hugely regrettable that our students will face three days of disruption to their education just when things had started to return to normal following the disruption of COVID-19. 

As a result, I and my UEB colleagues are committed to minimising disruption for our students, and our colleagues, particularly those not undertaking industrial action. As with previous industrial action, we are setting up a Contingency Operations Group to coordinate these activities. This will be chaired by Paul Inman and will convene shortly. Please look out for further communication on this issue as our plans develop. 

In the meantime, you can expect an email shortly from our Director of HR, John Brady, with more detailed information, particularly for those who are planning to participate in industrial action.  

We are also contacting all students by email to notify them of the action planned by UCU and to provide some reassurance about the mitigation we will put in place to minimise the impact on their studies. 

Kind regards, 

Robert 

Professor Robert Van de Noort

Vice-Chancellor