A dispute prompted by pensions cuts now encompasses pay, job security and workloads exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Credit: Vuk Valcic/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
Relations between employers and members of the University and College Union have been under tension since 2018, when staff first. Academics’ concerns have since escalated to include what the union says are unmanageable workloads — exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic — as well as a long-term real-terms wage cut, unequal pay and a lack of job security. The latest actions and further planned strikes are expected to affect lectures, conferences and laboratory work at dozens of institutions.
The Universities and Colleges Employers Association in London, which represents institutions, says the impacts of the strikes have been low. However, union members say that staff on strike have had to temporarily abandon experiments, leaving some laboratory samples unusable, and have missed funding-application deadlines and conferences.
But the UCU says that the valuation underpinning the proposals — which was carried out in March 2020, when the stock market was at its lowest ebb in years — is no longer valid. Although the figures remain volatile, new data show that the deficit shrank from £14.1 billion in March 2020 to £2.9 billion in January 2022.
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