Industrial Action

The University will withhold a day's pay from your salary for the day that you are involved in strike action. The level withheld will be calculated at the rate of 1/365th of annual salary per day. You are required to notify the University of your participation in strike action in order that appropriate deductions may be made from your salary.

If you have participated in strike action, please complete the pro-forma available here. This can also be used to notify of your intention to participate in strike action should you wish to. 

All agreed absences will be honoured. You will not be regarded as being on strike and there will be no effect on your salary if you have the prior approval of your Head of School / Section to be away from the University on any of the strike days. This also applies to anyone who has organised pre-authorised annual leave, home-working or any other absence due to official University business.

Under the 9-day fortnight scheme, if you were absent from work and were not able to accrue enough hours, you are not entitled to a day off.  The pay deductions made for participating in strike are based on 1/365th of your annual salary per day, which only covers your basic contractual hours (i.e. 7.5 hours a day) as such, it does not cover sufficient number of hours for you to claim a day off. The cycle will reset the following week / first week of no industrial action. 

If you indicated that you were going to participate in strike action on a day of adverse weather, or intended to do so, then your absence will count as a strike day and you should complete the pro-forma on this basis.

If you indicated that you would have been at work, or intended to be, but were not able to attend due to adverse weather, then your absence will be considered in line with the Severe Weather Policy.

The University will continue to pay employer contributions to participating scheme members.  Similarly, employee pension contributions will be deducted as normal irrespective of any reduction in salary as a consequence of participation in industrial action. This will ensure continuity of pension scheme membership and life assurance benefits.

If you are ill on any of the strike days you will be entitled to the sickness benefits available to you. If you are absent due to sickness on the day(s) of industrial action you must follow the normal absence reporting procedure.

Annual leave that has the prior approval of your line manager will be accepted. If you do not report for work and prior approval has not been given for your absence you will be regarded as being on strike and appropriate pay will be withheld.

You should report to work as usual. If you are absent from the office due to pre-authorised Annual Leave or sickness, you must ensure that this is reported through to your line manager/normal reporting procedures.

If your line manager asks that you undertake such work, as long as it is within the bounds of your contract, normal work and job description, you are obliged to do so.

The University has the right to determine what tasks are prioritised during working hours and to request that you reschedule classes where appropriate in the interest of students.

Yes, we anticipate that there will be picket lines at the main entrances to our campuses.

Picketing is covered by a Code of Practice which recommends that usually there should be no more than 6 people outside an entrance to, or exit from, a workplace.

Pickets are required to conduct themselves in a peaceful and non-threatening manner. Some staff on picket duty may seek to persuade you not to work but they have no right to impede your access to University premises. If you wish to work on the day of the strike you should walk or drive carefully past the picket line and report for work as normal.

You should expect the picket lines to be professionally organised and the behaviour of the pickets to be courteous. The pickets will conduct themselves in accordance with the Code of Practice. However if any incident does occur that causes any concern you should report the circumstance immediately to your Head of School/Section or to Human Resources.

Yes. If you participate in any action you will be regarded as being on strike and a day's pay will be withheld. 

It is important that you make sure your Head of School/Head of Section is informed of your working arrangements on any of the strike days. In these circumstances you will not have any payments withheld from your salary. In addition all staff who participate in the strike action will receive a letter advising them that monies will be withheld from their salary.

Yes, you will be sent a letter advising you that the University will withhold a day's pay from your salary for the day that you are involved in strike action. The level withheld will be calculated at the rate of 1/365th of annual salary per day. If you work part-time, a deduction will be made equivalent to contractual hours that should have been worked on each day on which strike action takes place. 

No, the University will continue to pay employer contributions to participating scheme members.  Similarly, employee pension contributions will be deducted as normal irrespective of any reduction in salary as a consequence of participation in industrial action. This will ensure continuity of pension scheme membership and life assurance benefits.

Staff employed on a visa should be aware that the University, as your sponsor, is required to report unauthorised absence (such as strike action) if it continues for more than 10 consecutive days. Please contact your HR team for further information on this.

Action short of strike is a form of industrial action where staff continue to work but withdraw from undertaking some aspects of their role. UCU have called for action short of strike in the form of:

• Working to contract
• Not covering for colleagues
• Not rescheduling lectures, classes or activities cancelled due to strike action
• Not sharing/uploading materials relating to lectures, classes or activities cancelled due to strike action, and;
• Not undertaking any voluntary duties.

UCU have called for action short of strike continuously from 12 March 2026.

You can but be aware that the University considers some forms of action short of strike as partial performance.

The University has the right to determine what tasks are prioritised during working hours and to request that you reschedule classes where appropriate in the interest of students as is the uploading/sharing of documents related to classes.

The University does not accept partial performance and if you refuse to carry out your full contractual duties you are not entitled to be paid. However, at this time the University will not withhold pay for participation in action short of strike. 

The University will keep this position under review with particular regard to the impact on the student experience and the University reserves the right to withhold pay as a result of partial performance during action short of strike.

Heads of School/Directors are asked to provide information to Human Resources on the morning of each strike day. This enables the University to understand the level of participation in strike action and, therefore, the level of disruption as well as to facilitate appropriate deductions from pay for those participating to be made. This is necessary in terms of the staff member’s contract of employment.
 
The information collated from Heads of School/Directors will include detail where staff have disclosed to them that they are participating in strike action as well as any cases where staff are not at work and they are unsure whether staff are participating in strike action or not.
 
Staff are asked to complete the form to confirm that they have participated in strike action.
 
Human Resources then use the information above to write to staff to confirm participation in strike action (for those staff members who have returned the form confirming participation). In addition, Human Resources will also write to staff who have not completed the form but where it is understood they have participated in strike action. In each case, staff are given the opportunity to highlight any error in the information prior to deductions from pay being made.