Where did all our wages go…?

Published: 14th January, 2019

You may recall that we took 14 days of strike action last February and March. You will almost certainly have noticed that in the subsequent months your pay was reduced, with our employer docking 2 days every month until October. Did you ever wonder what happened to that money – £650k, more or less – that the University of Leicester saved from its payroll?

As part of Leicester UCU’s negotiations with the University Leadership Team at the end of that period of strike action we made made several agreements. One was that our employer would spread strike deductions over a period of seven months. Another was that the money it saved it would designate to various hardship funds – mostly to benefit students. We have now received information on how this money has been allocated. (See below.) We can see that to date a little less than one-quarter of the lost or saved wages (depending on perspective) has been spent. We have been told that any funds left unspent in the current financial year will be rolled over into the next financial year for continued use by the Student Hardship Fund.

We will continue to monitor this spend and provide updates over the coming months.