This section carries the latest news, information
and guidance from Leeds, for all colleagues, during the dispute.
Planned industrial action
On 3 February UCU announced that it intends to proceed with a
further period of strike
action at 74 institutions, including
Leeds, in relation to ongoing disputes about pay and pensions.
Strikes are planned for 14 days, over four weeks:
- Week 1:
Thursday 20 and Friday 21 February
- Week 2:
Monday 24, Tuesday 25 and Wednesday 26 February
- Week 3:
Monday 2, Tuesday 3, Wednesday 4 and Thursday 5 March
- Week 4: Monday 9, Tuesday 10, Wednesday 11, Thursday
12 and Friday 13 March
This follows an earlier
period of strikes in November and December 2019. The announcement of the
planned strikes has come despite the following significant progress, in recent weeks, on both pay
and pensions.
-
Pay: The Universities and Colleges Employers
Association (UCEA) has presented a range of proposals to
address some of the issues at the centre of the ongoing dispute, focusing on
casual employment, workload/mental health and gender pay gaps/ethnicity pay.
This follows two months of constructive dialogue with the UCU.
- Pensions: Following the publication of the second
report by the Joint Expert Panel (made up equally of employers’ and scheme
members’ representatives), talks have been ongoing between UCU, Universities UK
and USS to address some of the longer
term issues associated with the
Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS). A series
of statements have been issued following these meetings, highlighting the
positive progress made to date.
Action short of strike (ASOS) is also ongoing continuously, until no later than 29 April 2020.
The University's priority throughout this time is to
minimise any disruption to students and to ensure we continue to communicate
with colleagues about the issues at the heart of this action.
Principles during industrial action
Our actions as a University community throughout this time
will be guided by these underlying principles:
- The
right of students to receive a quality education.
- The
right of employees to attend work.
- The
right to participate in industrial action.
- The
right of all people to be treated with respect and in a professional
way.
The standards and expectations of respect and
professionalism remain in place as they do throughout the year. Our
existing Code
of Conduct on Professional Behaviours and Dignity
and Mutual Respect Policy apply to all, whether or not they
participate in industrial action.
Questions and answers
Our questions
and answers web page has been developed for all colleagues,
we’ll be regularly updating the page throughout the industrial action.
Stay up to date
Leading up to and throughout the strike period we’ll
continue to communicate with you through eNews extra, a regular
all-staff email in addition to our usual fortnightly eNews. eNews extra will
bring together a range of information specifically related to the planned
industrial action. In between editions, you can keep up to date via this page.
You can also follow staff news on Twitter @UniLeedsStaff,
where we’ll link to new updates.
See also
USS Pension, In depth webpage
Useful links, latest news and next steps relating to the 2017 and 2018 USS valuations.
Pay 2019 - 2020, In depth webpage
Information about the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) Higher Education 2019-20 pay negotiations.
Student Q&A
Student questions answered on how any future industrial action could affect them.
