Published: 5th December, 2019
Our initial block of strike action finished on Wednesday 4 December. But our dispute with our employer – both University of Leicester and the employers’ association Universities UK – is ongoing. Therefore we will not be working normally – where ‘normally’ means subjecting ourselves to punishing workload, responding to emails in the evening, spending our weekends preparing new lectures or marking… Instead we will work to contract. This is part of our wider mandate for ‘action short of a strike’ or ASOS, with more than 80% of Leicester UCU members who voted supporting this, on a turnout of almost 60%. (See here for details.)
This action includes:
1. Not covering for absent colleagues (unless your contract specifies that you do; for example, being asked to cover classes or teaching for a colleague who is unwell)
2. Not rescheduling lectures or classes cancelled due to strike action. This includes any scheduled teaching activity which would have taken place on one of UCU’s strike days and applies to all UCU members, not just those directly responsible for the relevant lecture or class. You should refuse to reschedule this activity when asked, stating in response that you are supporting UCU’s action short of a strike. You should also not share materials that would have been covered in a lecture or class cancelled due to the strike.
3. Not undertaking any voluntary activities This is work you have a choice about; it will differ by contract, however, as a general guide those activities that are can be deemed as voluntary for most members are:
If you have already rescheduled lectures or classes that were scheduled during strike action, or your Head of Department has rescheduled them, then once action short of a strike has started after November 25th you should not teach them.
If you are a professional services member of staff, you too are covered by ASOS and working to contract and there is specific guidance for professional services staff from UCU nationally available here.
Working to contract means abiding strictly by the terms of your employment contract. If you’re in any doubt about what you are required to do, check your contractual documents – your offer letter, statement of main terms and conditions and/or any staff handbook. Contact us for further advice if you need it.
Taking action short of a strike does not mean that you can refuse a reasonable request from your manager to undertake something that isn’t covered by the examples above. How reasonable any request is will depend on the terms of your contract and custom and practice. If in doubt – or if your actions are challenged by someone senior to you – temporarily suspend your action and contact us for guidance.
If you are asked to undertake a voluntary duty we suggest using the following standard worded reply (copying in ucu@uculeicester.org.uk) to decline:
Thank you for your email. As a member of UCU I am currently working to contract as part of action short of a strike (ASOS) and following UCU advice. As xxxxxxxx is an additional voluntary activity that is not part of my usual contractual duties I will not be performing it. Please be advised that in line with UCU’s action short of a strike, I am continuing to undertake my normal contractual duties.
As ASOS means working no more than our contracted hours[*] you will need to inform your line manager and/or professional services colleagues that you are unlikely to be able to meet usual deadlines, such as for marking. This is especially so during the current short periods of work-days between blocks of strike-days. We therefore recommend that you write using the following form of wording if you are unable to meet a marking deadline:
As ASOS means working no more than our contracted hours[*] you will need to inform your line manager and/or professional services colleagues that you are unlikely to be able to meet usual deadlines, such as for marking. This is especially so during the current short periods of work-days between blocks of strike-days. We therefore recommend that you write using the following form of wording if you are unable to meet a marking deadline:
Thank you for your email. As a member of UCU I am currently working to contract as part of action short of a strike (ASOS) and following UCU advice. This means that I am only working my contractual 37.5 hours per week and from 9.00 to 5.30 each day (incl. of one-hour lunch). Therefore, I will mark what assignments I can within those hours and then stop
If you have conflicting deadlines, where you only be able to meet one or some within your working-day then you should write your line manager as follows, asking them to advise on which duties you should prioritise:
Thank you for your email. As a member of UCU I am currently working to contract as part of action short of a strike (ASOS) and following UCU advice. This means that I am only working my contractual 37.5 hours per week and from 9.00 to 5.30 each day (including one hour for lunch). Consequently, I am unable to complete the following duties within my working hours xxxxxx Please advise on which of these you wish me to prioritise.
Not ‘rescheduling’ classes also means we should not make local departmental and school arrangements to mitigate the impact of the strikes on assessment content and types (e.g. don’t rewrite exam papers or other assessments to mitigate what has not been taught). Any consequences of this kind should be passed on to our line managers and/or the higher echelons of the university responsible for learning, teaching and quality issues who will have to dig deep to apply their aegrotat powers for student progression and award.
[*] For many staff our contracts stipulate 37.5 hours per week. This could mean working from 9.00am until 5.30pm each day with a one-hour lunch. But other staff will have different contractual agreements and some staff expected to work 37.5 hours every week will have different working patterns, e.g. 8am–4.30pm or 9.30am–6pm. According to national UCU’s advice: “In some cases, established hours can be derived from local workload collective agreements. In that case, you should work no more hours than expressed in this agreement. If in doubt contact your branch.”
© 2024 - University of Leicester UCU ● Privacy Policy ● v4.0
