Strike Advice from St Andrews UCU President

Responses to common recent queries:

Letter and FAQs from HR, message to students from Proctor

You don’t need to tell anyone of your participation in the action before it begins. If asked by the University (for example in an e-mail from HR or directly by your line manager) about your participation on any given day of strike action after it has taken place you should answer truthfully about your participation.

It is not necessary to point out to you the many misrepresentations of the background to the dispute and the purpose of the industrial action in these communications. Please challenge these descriptions when talking to colleagues and students, and if you need additional information on any point, contact your school/dept. contact or a committee member.

Breach of contract communications/ rescheduling

The communications from HR suggest that 100% of pay may be deducted if you are asked to reschedule teaching missed due to strike days and do not do so before 23 April. UCU advice remains that you do not reschedule classes; that advice also stands for managers who are members of UCU. You should also refuse to share teaching materials for any class that has been missed due to the industrial action.

Any action short of a strike is breach of contract, and the employer could deduct up to 100% of wages for partial performance. The HR communication therefore sets out nothing more than the general legal position. St Andrews is simply being more threatening than other institutions, which have proposed deductions of up to 25% for partial performance of duties.

If you are asked to reschedule teaching, please refuse, and let the branch know (at ucu@st-andrews.ac.uk or tej1@st-andrews.ac.uk ).
Please likewise inform the branch immediately if you have pay deducted for refusing to reschedule teaching or other commitments.

Staff on fixed-term contracts/ probationary periods

We hope that there will be no recriminations against any members taking the action, particularly those made vulnerable by the terms of their employment. There are legal protections against victimisation, and the branch will support any member who is victimised as a result of participating in industrial action.

All industrial action is a potential breach of contract.  However as UCU has carried out a legal ballot and the action has been formally called, the law protects members from dismissal whilst taking part in lawful industrial action or at any time within 12 weeks of the start of the action and, depending on the circumstances, dismissal may also be unfair if it takes place later.  This kind of dismissal has never happened in higher education.

Staff on work visas taking action

This has never been an issue in previous disputes. UCU has commissioned specialist legal advice from immigration lawyers Bindmans which should follow from head office shortly and will be circulated to members.

Strike action – picketing

The branch will picket at as many locations as possible, maintaining a presence near every workplace, focusing on the mornings of every strike day. Details will be circulated early next week, with department/school contacts assisting with a picket timetable. Please volunteer for times and locations when approached.
Please also get in touch (ucu@st-andrews.ac.uk or tej1@st-andrews.ac.uk ) if you do not currently have a departmental contact for your workplace and could offer to be one for the duration of the strike action.

Dundee rally, Thursday 22 February, 12-1.30, Marryat Hall at the Caird Hall.

The action kicks off with rallies in Glasgow and Dundee. The branch will book a 50-seat bus, leaving St Andrews at 11am from the Students’ Association, returning from the Caird Hall at 2pm.
Please respond to the Outlook invitation (to follow) to indicate your interest in a place on the bus.

Edinburgh

Colleagues who live in Edinburgh and who might have time to help there in the build-up to the industrial action are encouraged to contact Shereen Benjamin at shereen.benjamin@ed.ac.uk .

The deficit: fact or fiction?

We have frequently been told that the deficit is a fact, the USS fund is mismanaged, and the UUK proposals are a financial necessity. NONE OF THIS IS TRUE. To prepare yourself for responding to such points we recommend that every member read the excellent article by Sean Wallis (UCU UCL branch) on the way in which the deficit is calculated and the political context of the dispute:

https://heconvention2.wordpress.com/2018/02/08/made-in-westminster/amp/