While the article focuses on 2 universities. The threat of indefinite 100% withdrawal of pay until material not covered due to strike action is rescheduled has been made by other universities, including my employer.
If we agree to this, as we already get our pay deducted 100% on strike days, this is equivalent to working unpaid labor.
If we don’t and universities follow through, it’s a threat to not pay us for the hard work we do on our modules, effectively indefinitely. Even when following lectures are running as planned and to our contract. Given many of us are already struggling due to the cost of living crisis this will be hard for many members of staff to cope with.
People don’t usually get paid for working on strike, because if you decide not to meet the terms of your employment contract then the employer won’t either.
Employers are entitled to refuse to accept partial performance because it’s still a breach of contract. If marking work is a key term of your employment, and you don’t mark work, then you aren’t fulfilling the terms of your contract and don’t get paid.
How tf is this even legal?
This headline caught my attention, so looked into it.
>Two universities have threatened striking academics that they will be docked all of their pay “indefinitely” in a move that has been described by a union as “brutalising staff into submission”.
Geez, that sounds awful!
>Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), a member of the prestigious Russell Group, and Wolverhampton University have caused outrage by threatening to continue docking 100% of academics’ pay unless they reschedule all the classes they have missed.
Bold way to test the trade union legislation in court.
But crucially, even if this was ruled lawful, academics work way more hours than contractually-obliged; in RG, GuildHE, Million+; whatever universities, the affected staff members will just work to contract, which will affect universities and students even more. It’ll massively backfire.
This is the second time today I’ve seen a Guardian article posted where barely anything has been researched.
I don’t know what it’s like at other universities, but I remember when lecturers were striking while I was at Uni the student body was relatively sympathetic towards them and knew the Uni was at fault.
Using the student body as a stick to beat their staff isn’t going to turn out as they expect
If you agree to pay a person to provide a service and they fail to provide that service, then you should either not pay, or stop paying them until such time as they provide the service, or to a point where they are in breach of contract and terminated.
Some casual jobs like marking are already pretty much not worth doing for the pay. You’re better off taking the time to work on a publication or just finish your thesis faster.
If it is done as a suspension without pay, then fair enough. It sounds, though, like they are doing something dodgier than that.
Lol if these universities manage to enforce that then if lecturers and other staff only work contracted hours then these universities will find out a leopard has eaten their faces very quickly .
Surprise surprise, if you don’t do the work you were employed to do, then you don’t get paid what you were supposed to be paid.
Southampton Universities policy on pay for Action Short if Strike (copied and pasted from their website):
Employees participating in ASOS may have their pay withheld, whereby the action results in a breach of the employment contract, also known as partial performance. The University has set out which actions are considered to be contractual in the Action Short of a Strike (ASOS) guidance.
The University does not accept partial performance and is entitled to withhold 100% of pay.
The University asks those staff participating in ASOS to prioritise all planned educational activities above all other activities. Where all planned educational activities are not undertaken as a result of partial performance, the University will withhold 100% of pay at the point where the employee is not ready and willing to perform their full contractual duties. If any payment is withheld, this will be continuous until the employee recommences their full contractual duties or until such time that the planned educational activity has been completed.
The University at its discretion may choose to withhold a proportionate amount of pay based on its assessment of industrial action, without prejudice to its right to withhold 100%.
Totally normal UK with one of its most internationally recognized and valued industries treating its exceedingly highly qualified staff like we are scum while raking in billions of pounds in profit.
No one cares because apparently we’re on the wrong side of the culture war for… Urm… Being too left wing or something I guess?
That seems a fantastic way to escalate the situation and piss off even more people.
That doesn’t always work when you’re dealing with people with easyily(*ish*) replaceable skills, doing it with people who’s skills you might not be able to replace *at all* is madness.
I work at a University and was looking through the FAQs they had put up on the intranet and saw that if you called off sick on the day of the strikes, you would automatically have your pay docked for that day unless you got a doctor’s note.
There was no mention of even if you were part of the union striking, so everyone that happened to get Covid or was sick that day was screwed, regardless of Union affiliation or if they had any intention of supporting the strike.
[removed]
If you want to hurt them back follow social media especially their international stuff and spam it with negative stuff about this . They will also post about webinars they are doing sign up and hit the chat . Open days come with #tags again tweet and post. Find famous alumni and tweet at them that you think it’s disgusting what they are doing.
Hold up, if you strike you’re not working… therefore you get no pay
​
Doesn’t seem that unfair, TFL does the same as did Newham Council days not work means days you don’t get paid, you also lost holiday.
​
IF you want to strike for better pay and conditions you have to be prepared for the fight, TFL does this and end up winning in the end.
​
​
remember, when you strike you are in breach of contract, not the employer, you will lose employee benefits, TFL for example has the Staff oyster cards, when striking you’re not allowed to use it, neither the Nominee Oyster card can be used.
Not getting pain when not doing your job is quite common though… and whose going to compensate the students who are paying 9k a year for a sub par education.
Damn. They rlly gonna cut the pay of teachers as a punishment for teachers going on strike because of pay cuts. Sad stuff tbh
They’re still collecting fees from students though.
20 comments
While the article focuses on 2 universities. The threat of indefinite 100% withdrawal of pay until material not covered due to strike action is rescheduled has been made by other universities, including my employer.
If we agree to this, as we already get our pay deducted 100% on strike days, this is equivalent to working unpaid labor.
If we don’t and universities follow through, it’s a threat to not pay us for the hard work we do on our modules, effectively indefinitely. Even when following lectures are running as planned and to our contract. Given many of us are already struggling due to the cost of living crisis this will be hard for many members of staff to cope with.
People don’t usually get paid for working on strike, because if you decide not to meet the terms of your employment contract then the employer won’t either.
Employers are entitled to refuse to accept partial performance because it’s still a breach of contract. If marking work is a key term of your employment, and you don’t mark work, then you aren’t fulfilling the terms of your contract and don’t get paid.
How tf is this even legal?
This headline caught my attention, so looked into it.
>Two universities have threatened striking academics that they will be docked all of their pay “indefinitely” in a move that has been described by a union as “brutalising staff into submission”.
Geez, that sounds awful!
>Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), a member of the prestigious Russell Group, and Wolverhampton University have caused outrage by threatening to continue docking 100% of academics’ pay unless they reschedule all the classes they have missed.
Bold way to test the trade union legislation in court.
But crucially, even if this was ruled lawful, academics work way more hours than contractually-obliged; in RG, GuildHE, Million+; whatever universities, the affected staff members will just work to contract, which will affect universities and students even more. It’ll massively backfire.
This is the second time today I’ve seen a Guardian article posted where barely anything has been researched.
I don’t know what it’s like at other universities, but I remember when lecturers were striking while I was at Uni the student body was relatively sympathetic towards them and knew the Uni was at fault.
Using the student body as a stick to beat their staff isn’t going to turn out as they expect
If you agree to pay a person to provide a service and they fail to provide that service, then you should either not pay, or stop paying them until such time as they provide the service, or to a point where they are in breach of contract and terminated.
Some casual jobs like marking are already pretty much not worth doing for the pay. You’re better off taking the time to work on a publication or just finish your thesis faster.
If it is done as a suspension without pay, then fair enough. It sounds, though, like they are doing something dodgier than that.
Lol if these universities manage to enforce that then if lecturers and other staff only work contracted hours then these universities will find out a leopard has eaten their faces very quickly .
Surprise surprise, if you don’t do the work you were employed to do, then you don’t get paid what you were supposed to be paid.
Southampton Universities policy on pay for Action Short if Strike (copied and pasted from their website):
Employees participating in ASOS may have their pay withheld, whereby the action results in a breach of the employment contract, also known as partial performance. The University has set out which actions are considered to be contractual in the Action Short of a Strike (ASOS) guidance.
The University does not accept partial performance and is entitled to withhold 100% of pay.
The University asks those staff participating in ASOS to prioritise all planned educational activities above all other activities. Where all planned educational activities are not undertaken as a result of partial performance, the University will withhold 100% of pay at the point where the employee is not ready and willing to perform their full contractual duties. If any payment is withheld, this will be continuous until the employee recommences their full contractual duties or until such time that the planned educational activity has been completed.
The University at its discretion may choose to withhold a proportionate amount of pay based on its assessment of industrial action, without prejudice to its right to withhold 100%.
Totally normal UK with one of its most internationally recognized and valued industries treating its exceedingly highly qualified staff like we are scum while raking in billions of pounds in profit.
No one cares because apparently we’re on the wrong side of the culture war for… Urm… Being too left wing or something I guess?
That seems a fantastic way to escalate the situation and piss off even more people.
That doesn’t always work when you’re dealing with people with easyily(*ish*) replaceable skills, doing it with people who’s skills you might not be able to replace *at all* is madness.
I work at a University and was looking through the FAQs they had put up on the intranet and saw that if you called off sick on the day of the strikes, you would automatically have your pay docked for that day unless you got a doctor’s note.
There was no mention of even if you were part of the union striking, so everyone that happened to get Covid or was sick that day was screwed, regardless of Union affiliation or if they had any intention of supporting the strike.
[removed]
If you want to hurt them back follow social media especially their international stuff and spam it with negative stuff about this . They will also post about webinars they are doing sign up and hit the chat . Open days come with #tags again tweet and post. Find famous alumni and tweet at them that you think it’s disgusting what they are doing.
Hold up, if you strike you’re not working… therefore you get no pay
​
Doesn’t seem that unfair, TFL does the same as did Newham Council days not work means days you don’t get paid, you also lost holiday.
​
IF you want to strike for better pay and conditions you have to be prepared for the fight, TFL does this and end up winning in the end.
​
​
remember, when you strike you are in breach of contract, not the employer, you will lose employee benefits, TFL for example has the Staff oyster cards, when striking you’re not allowed to use it, neither the Nominee Oyster card can be used.
Not getting pain when not doing your job is quite common though… and whose going to compensate the students who are paying 9k a year for a sub par education.
Damn. They rlly gonna cut the pay of teachers as a punishment for teachers going on strike because of pay cuts. Sad stuff tbh
They’re still collecting fees from students though.