This is a useful reminder of the key points of the dispute – particularly useful when talking to trhe press but also worth reading through for all those other conversations:

What is happening?

• UCU members at 145 institutions have voted to take industrial action over pay and working conditions

What is the dispute about / why are we striking?

Pay:

• Joint union claim was for inflation + 2% or 12% whichever is highest
• Employer’s final offer of 3% was rejected nationally by the joint unions
• Inflation is currently running at around 12% so a 3% pay award would be sigificantly below inflation
• Staff have already had an effective 28.2% cut in pay since 2009

Meanwhile employers have failed to take effective action to tackle issues of excessive workload, rising casualization and persistent inequality in pay.

Workload:

• Workload is a significant issue across the sector.
• Staff regularly working well in excess of their contractual hours
• UCU workload survey 2021 shows:
  • academic staff working on average of 51.3 hrs a week.
  • Prof services working 44.4 hrs
  • 33% of staff said workload unmanageable
• Research by charity Education Support shows significant impact on health of members

Equality pay gaps:

• There are persistent inequality in pay across the sector and equality pay gaps are not falling at any meaningful rate. Current rates
  • Ethnicity 17%
  • Disability 9%
  • Gender 16%
  • Take 22 years at current rates to close the gap

Casualisation:

• Casualisation increasing
  • 33% of all academic staff now on ft contracts
  • Rise in worker contracts
  • Significant impact on members
    • 42% struggle to pay bills
    • 71% say mental health affected
    • 43% say impact physical wellbeing

These are all national issues affecting staff at all Universities, so require national solutions.

Is this affordable?

Yes, the claim is affordable

• Total cost of claim is less than £1 Billion nationally
• HE sector income was £42.4 billion in 2019/20
• Surplus of £3.4billion
• Sector’s capital expenditure £4.2Billion
• Proportion of expenditure spent across the sector on pay has dropped from 54.6% in 2015/16 to – 51.6% in 19/20

Institution specific financial info for 2020/21 can be found here: UCU – HE institution data

Includes info on:

• Income
• Surplus
• Investments
• VC remuneration

UCU took industrial action on the same issues last year, what is different this time?

• Aggregated ballot so members at all institutions will be on strike.
• Inflation is running at over 10% which makes the need for a fair deal more urgent

Impact on students?

• Successful industrial action will ultimately cause disruption to students
• Our members are education professionals and do not take the decision to take industrial action lightly
• Fighting for the future of the profession
• Issues that we are fighting – low pay, inequality, casualization and excessive workload – impact most significantly on early years staff and make it less attractive to new staff
• University management has had ample warning that it would face industrial action unless it met our demands.
• Instead they have imposed a sub-inflationary pay award and failed to act on the issues that are impacting staff

• Students understand that staff working conditions are their learning conditions
• High staff turnover and overworked staff impact on the education that students receive
• Students know that the staff work hard to support them and must be paid fairly
• Because of this students are generally supportive of the action
• Our student’s union or supports the strike.

What do employers need to do to resolve the dispute?

• This is a national dispute and will need a national solution
• Employers should be putting pressure on their representative body – UCEA – to negotiate a fair pay award and national frameworks to address the issues of workload, casualisation and inequality in pay.