Support your UCU colleagues

UCU members are currently still in dispute with the employers and are taking action short of strike – often referred to as ASOS.  This means that they are withdrawing certain activities and working only to their contractual duties.  

Eric Silverman, UCU Branch Secretary says:

"We are participating in this working-to-contract action because universities rely on immense amounts of unpaid labour and goodwill to achieve their goals.  Academic staff in Southampton and at other Universities across the country are suffering under tremendous workloads -- the average UK academic works 55 hours per week.  And yet we push ourselves to the limit to get our research and lecturing done while also marking assignments, supervising postgraduates, applying for research funding, and all the rest.  All UCU members will still be performing all their contractually required duties during this action so that students will not lose out, but we are retracting our goodwill to underline how much Universities depend on our dedication.  We work hard and deserve fair pay, not years of repeated pay cuts.     

We appreciate the support from all of our colleagues in UNISON, and we hope that this action will contribute to our efforts across all three on-campus unions to get fair pay for the entire University community."

What does action short of strike entail?  This is what the UCU members will undertake:

• to work no more than their contracted hours where those hours are expressly stated, or where they are stipulated in a workload agreement and in any event not to exceed the maximum number of hours per week stipulated in the Working Time Regulations (48 hours a week)
• to perform no additional voluntary duties, such as out of hours cover, or covering for colleagues (unless such cover is contractually required)
• to set and mark no work beyond that work which they are contractually obliged to set and/or mark
• to attend no meetings where such attendance is voluntary on the part of the members
• to undertake no duties that breach health and safety policies or other significant employer's policies

How can you support your UCU colleagues?

If one of your colleagues is in UCU and participating in this action, do not take on work that would normally be performed by your colleague and which falls outside of your own contractual duties. For example - maybe you are asked to cancel lectures if your colleague is ill.  This is perfectly acceptable.  However, if your colleague is a UCU member and is refusing to cancel lectures because it is not part of her or his duty, then do not take on this duty, if it is not yours in the first place.

If you are unsure whether you should be doing a job that your colleague would normally do, ask us for advice.  Email us at unison@soton.ac.uk. or ask your steward / representative.

You can find more information about the UCU action short of strike here