Displaying items by tag: university staff

Whether you're waiting for a hip operation, a new passport, wondering what you're going to do with your children when their teachers are on the picket line, or are a university lecturer worried about losing pay when you protest, walkouts aren't anywhere close to coming to an end. The nurses’ union leader told her members a 5% pay rise and a one-off payment of at least £1,655 was worth accepting. But they disagreed. So strikes continue, with staff being withdrawn from emergency departments for the first time. Junior doctors are set for further industrial action and could end up on strike at the same time as nurses in England. Civil servants are likely to walk out too, having missed out on a one-off payment for 2022/3, which other workers had been granted. Dave Penman, leader of the FDA civil service union, warns the consequence will be a ‘prolonged and damaging dispute’.

Over 70,000 university staff at 150 universities could strike after the University and College Union members voted 'yes' to strike action in two ballots. Both ballots saw the union deliver large turnouts that exceeded the necessary threshold. The union now has authority to strike at practically every university and wants vice chancellors to enter negotiations immediately with improved offers to avoid the entire higher education sector being brought to a standstill. The union’s higher education committee meets on 3rd November to decide their next steps to pressure employers into meaningful negotiations. The union’s general secretary said 'University staff are crucial workers in communities up and down the UK. They are sending a clear message that they will not accept falling pay, insecure employment and attacks on pensions. They know their power and are ready to take back what is theirs from a sector raking in tens of billions of pounds.'

In 2020 staff at 74 universities held a 14-day strike over pensions, pay, and conditions. Now staff at 68 UK universities will be taking part in a wave of strike action over the next three weeks. Some are striking over pay and conditions, others over pensions: but for most taking action, it is over both. The University and College Union, which represents staff at institutions across the UK, has demanded a £2,500 pay increase for members, an end to ‘pay injustice’ and zero-hours contracts, and action to tackle ‘unmanageable workloads’. The dispute over pensions has been rumbling on for over a decade, but has been reignited by a valuation of a pension scheme used by academic staff - the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS). Those involved in the action include some of the UK's biggest in terms of student numbers - such as the Open University, University College London, and the University of Manchester.