UCU strikes: Important information for staff

The following email was sent to all staff by Claire Rolstone, Interim Director of HR, on Tuesday 31 January

Dear colleagues,

As promised, I am writing to provide some important information following last week’s message confirming the dates of 18 days of strike action announced by the UCU over pension reform.

The University acknowledges the right of colleagues to take industrial action. We urge all colleagues, regardless of their views, to be patient and respectful towards one another during the coming weeks.

I’m sure we all also recognise how important it is that we minimise the impact of the strikes on students’ studies as much as reasonably possible, and the legal obligations we have to ensure the quality and value of their learning experience.

Detailed information follows on the financial and legal implications of industrial action and instructions on what to do if you are participating – including the requirement to make arrangements to make up for cancelled teaching sessions.

Further information and FAQs can be found on the Staff Portal.

Information and FAQs for students, including how they can report cancelled teaching sessions or any negative impact on their studies, has also been published on Essentials, along with a copy of the email sent to students last week about the strikes.

Please contact me by emailing c.rolstone@reading.ac.uk if you have any questions or concerns about what participation in this strike action might mean for you.

Best wishes,

Claire

Information for participating UCU members

Colleagues are encouraged to review the following information, which lays out clearly the most important implications, including financial and legal, of industrial action. 

Participation in strike action

If you are participating in the notified strike action, there are several things you need to know:

• As with previous periods of industrial action, pay will be deducted for each day of strike action at a rate of 1/365^th. Relevant deductions will be made in the next available pay-run.
• You are not required to inform the University in advance of your intention to participate in the strike action. If you do take strike action, however, you must declare your participation following the action.  You must declare your participation using the Strike Notification Form as soon as possible following your return to work at the conclusion of the relevant period of action, usually on your next working day.
• Strike Notification Forms can be accessed via the Staff Portal. A link to the relevant Strike Notification Form will also be circulated on the day following each period of strike action. Colleagues should fill out the form that corresponds to the strike day(s) in which they participated. This will be clearly noted on the form.
• Failure to notify the University of your participation in strike action will be treated as a disciplinary matter.
• If there are exceptional reasons why you might not be able to comply with these reporting requirements, please contact Claire Rolstone as soon as possible.
• When pay is deducted for strike days the University has to make exceptional arrangements to maintain pension contributions. Your agreement is required to maintain normal pension contributions for those days you are on strike, this agreement can be expressly given on the Strike Notification Form.  If pension contributions are not maintained, life assurance cover can be affected. The University understands that USS Trustee has agreed to maintain cover for this period of action but had reserved the right to review this position if the industrial action is extended.
• When you return to full duties, the University may require you to prioritise missed work over other work during your working hours. The University is entitled to do this, as it is a lawful and reasonable instruction to staff. There will be no additional pay for doing this work. 

Participation in action short of strike (ASOS) 

The strike dates in February and March 2023 are in addition to an ongoing period of ASOS that commended on 23 November 2022. The UCU has described the intended ASOS as consisting of: 

• working to contract;
• not undertaking any voluntary activities;  
• not covering for absent colleagues;  
• removing uploaded materials related to, and/or  
• not sharing materials related to, lectures or classes that will be or have been cancelled as a result of strike action; and  
• not rescheduling lectures or classes cancelled due to strike action.  

If you are participating in the notified action short of strike, there are several things you need to know:

• You must inform the University that you are participating in ASOS. You do not need to notify the University in advance but must do so at the start of your participation in ASOS. You can do this by completing the ASOS Participation Form.
• Where the ASOS is limited to working to contract, we will monitor this but there will be no further action. However, colleagues are expected to perform their contractual duties in full and other aspects of ASOS are likely to constitute a breach of contract. The University does not accept partial performance and reserves the right to make deductions from pay where breaches of contract occur.  
• This means that the University is not legally obliged to pay you in full if you only partially perform your contractual duties. This could lead to a deduction of up to 100% of pay.  
• There may be requests for clarification of the term ‘partial performance’. The notified UCU action refers to action short of strike including ‘working to contract’. This is not unreasonable, and adherence with this will not generate further action. The instruction not to ‘undertake voluntary activities’ would not constitute partial performance, for those activities that are genuinely voluntary and do not form part of the reasonable expectations for your role. However, it is important to understand that as well as the express terms of your written contract of employment, there are other implied terms that are also contractual obligations, including the customary ways in which people have worked in their Schools or Functions and the implied duties to follow lawful and reasonable instructions.  
• As noted previously, the OIA and OfS expect institutions not just to simply exclude topics missed due to industrial action from any assessments, but to proactively ensure students are still able to benefit from this learning. We must also ensure students with disabilities and/or specific learning difficulties are supported in a way that meets their individual learning needs. 
• Reasonable efforts should be made to reschedule lectures or classes cancelled due to strike action or to agree other arrangements to make up for missed teaching. Refusal to do so, or to make reasonable efforts to do so, will be considered by the University to constitute partial performance and be a breach of contract.  
• Teaching materials, including those uploaded to Blackboard or Canvas, and whether written or learning capture materials, will in most cases belong to the University. You are not permitted to remove these materials unless this has been approved by the relevant Teaching and Learning Dean and to do so is likely to be a breach of contract. 
• We will periodically review the effect of the action on our students and its impact more broadly across the University. We reserve the right to withhold up to 100% of pay at any time while the dispute persists and where contractual duties are not performed in full. Where applied, deductions will continue to be made until the union calls off the action or the individual confirms they are resuming full duties and does resume full duties. 

Additional information 

The following points are based on queries received during previous periods of industrial action: 

• Some colleagues may enquire about taking annual leave or working from home during the strike action. Any existing annual leave bookings should of course be honoured. Line managers should consider any new requests for leave or to work from home in the normal way, but where there are concerns about service disruption or staff shortages such requests may be refused. 
• UCU colleagues are likely to maintain small picket lines at various entrances to our campuses on the days of strike action. This is perfectly legitimate. The law requires picketing to be conducted peacefully and lawfully, and no-one should be harassed when entering the campus. We have never experienced any difficulty locally in the past and have no reason to expect anything different on this occasion. If you are a member of the UCU and have decided not to participate in the strike action you are free to work as normal, and I am sure that your UCU colleagues will be respectful of your personal decision. 
• It is reasonable for line managers to ask other colleagues to cover duties disrupted by the industrial action as long as it does not over-burden people or does not require them to take on duties that they are not competent or trained to perform. 
• Some line managers are members of the UCU and may be participating in the industrial action, and the University respects their right to do so. It can be difficult to reconcile supporting the action and performing your line management duties, which could include assisting the University with its efforts to minimise disruption. As things stand the notified UCU action does not call for non-cooperation from those with line management responsibilities, so our normal expectations will apply. 
• If the dispute is prolonged beyond the currently notified dates, it will be even more important for all of us to be respectful of each other’s decisions, whether that be to continue with strike action, to return to work or to have been at work fully during the dispute. By way of a reminder, it is permissible to ask a colleague if they are going to be on strike but they are under no obligation to offer this information in advance; repeated requests are unnecessary. 
• Equally, colleagues on picket lines can hand out leaflets and ask you not to cross their line; however, they should not make repeated requests or impede you in any way. All colleagues are reminded that we continue to work together during and beyond this dispute.  
• The withholding of pay is without prejudice to any other right or remedy of the University, including any claim for damages for breach of contract. Following previous periods of industrial action there were claims brought by students against a number of universities. With this in mind the University further reserves the right to join you as a party to any claim for breach of contract brought against the University as a result of this current action.