This week, University and College Union (UCU) members commenced a marking and assessment boycott, as part of their long running pay and working conditions dispute. But even though workers taking part in the action will still be working, they are being threatened with a 100% pay cut, as emails seen by voice.wales reveal.
By Adwitiya Pal. Cover image: Cardiff UCU members strike in February, by Adwitiya Pal
On Wednesday afternoon, almost all Cardiff University lecturers received an email in their inbox from management. The workforce have been striking over the past several months on four fronts — to end the gender pay gap and casualisation, reinstate manageable workloads, and earn fair pay. But some say the message received this week is only going to antagonise the dispute more.
voice.wales can confirm that it has seen the email sent by Cardiff University’s HR department, threatening to withhold up to 100% of workers’ pay if they decided to participate in the UCU’s nationwide marking and assessment boycott.
A ‘Marking and Assessment Boycott’ is when university workers stop doing all work relating to students’ assessments, such as marking submissions or invigilating examinations, but continue with all other aspects of their jobs, including teaching and other supporting roles. It’s considered as a form of ‘Action Short of Strike’ (ASOS) and was part of the strike ballot recently secured by the UCU.
Since Thursday, lecturers at 145 universities across the UK have commenced the boycott, in response to the employers’ failure to produce an improved offer in the pay and conditions dispute. However, Cardiff University, along with almost 50 other universities, including Cardiff Metropolitan University and University of South Wales (USW) have announced that they will be withholding the pay of any participating worker.
The move wasn’t surprising for Sandy Gould, a Cardiff UCU member. “It’s immoral, it’s basically about scaring the workers off,” he told voice.wales. “I didn’t have any confidence about the university trying to maintain staff goodwill. They have been moving towards this direction of using threats lately, so this doesn’t come as anything unexpected.”
According to the correspondence, the University claims that it has the right to withhold 100% of the pay of anyone taking part in both strike action and ASOS. In the first instance, they say they will withhold 50% of the pay of those involved in the marking and assessment boycott.
The other half of their pay is discretionary, conditional on all other contractual responsibilities being met on a voluntary basis by staff, with Cardiff University management also adding that they are under “no obligation” to pay staff for any work done during this period.
The move has left UCU members angered. Dr Andy Williams, a Cardiff UCU media spokesperson told voice.wales, “Staff at Cardiff University have felt used for years by the employers. Since Wednesday, we also now feel abused.”
“It’s clearly a coordinated response from the UCEA to intimidate us and break the strike,” he said, referring to the Universities and Colleges Employers Association, which represents educational institutions in negotiations with trade unions. “It’s punitive bullying behaviour.”
“The fact that they’re calling the rest of 50% pay discretionary is a real slap in the face,” he continued, adding that there are already talks of serving a notice to the University for strike action, which will result in a 100% pay loss. “If we are going to lose our pay, we would rather be on strike. It’s an escalation, but it’s an escalation in the face of unreasonable punitive and appalling behaviour by the universities.”
While Cardiff University says that the boycott will have a serious and adverse effect on the students and the reputation of the university, staff have revealed that they receive guidelines which suggest allocating only 20 minutes to mark a 2,000 word essay.
“The university gives us a ludicrously low time period in which we’re expected to mark complex work that students will often have spent days if not weeks, writing,” said Dr Williams. “But when we, as a union, legally withdraw parts of our labour which relate to assessment activity, only then are they reminded of the value and importance of marking and feedback. It’s a staggering hypocrisy.”
The UCU has been pushing back against such workplace practices for a long time.
The union recently came to an agreement on a deal for the pension scheme. However, in the pay and working conditions dispute, members overwhelmingly rejected the deal offered to them by university employers as it barely provided anything substantial to meet the cost of living crisis fuelled by soaring inflation.
Slideshow images, striking Cardiff University workers, by Adwitiya Pal
The marking and assessment boycott is in direct response to the failed negotiations, said Gould, but the frustration of securing a deal that addresses all four issues comes because of how educational institutions are being run.
“Universities only work because of all the unpaid labour that staff do. It’s really that simple.”
“The institutions would fall over within weeks if everyone worked to their contracted hours. It only works because of the goodwill of people working for nothing,” he said, echoing what another lecturer from Cardiff University had told us in March.
Cardiff Metropolitan University and USW meanwhile are threatening their workers with a 60% pay deduction. However, withholding pay is not new for universities. Last year, when UCU members at Queen Mary University, London participated in ASOS, they were threatened with 100% pay deductions.
Gould said, “Queen Mary kind of pioneered the union-busting pay withhold idea, so it’s no wonder to see other universities catching up to that too. They’ve been working really hard to alienate and disintegrate the staff. The people running these universities think they are running a business.”
So is the latest intimidation tactic going to work in favour of the employers? Dr Williams believes not.
“Last week, UCU members were scared. We were trepidatious. We were concerned and worried not only about the effects of the boycott and our own pay, but also for the students who all of us care deeply about and for whom we routinely go above and beyond under difficult circumstances,” he said. “The co-ordinated action of the universities that have threatened with these punitive deductions, has changed our fear into anger.”
Now, with strike action back on the table for Cardiff UCU, Dr Williams said that the universities’ insistence could end up resulting in members looking at other ways of targeted disruptions.
“I would imagine that how our labour could be withdrawn to disrupt recruitment and admissions related work will be discussed in branches up and down the country, if it’s not being discussed already,” he said.
“There are open days where we have to promote the universities that are treating us so badly. If we refuse to participate in that, what happens to the reputation of the universities that want students to enrol with them?”
Further, if the dispute extends for longer, then the UCU can decide to withdraw labour when universities are in the midst of confirmation and clearing during the summer, amidst a frenzied period of activity as university staff ensure that students get admissions. Dr Williams, points out, the union’s current strike mandate extends till October.
But Dr Williams is keen to stress that university workers do not want this. Instead, “employers could end the dispute today if they wanted to”, he says, by making a pay offer that keeps up with inflation, and one that gives them something concrete to ensure that the unhealthy workloads, gender pay gap, and casualisation problems are addressed.
“It really wouldn’t take much to get around the negotiating table and withdraw these punitive bullying threats. They could salvage the last shreds of goodwill that remain in these overworked, under appreciated university staff members,” said Dr Williams.
“They could save an awful lot of disappointment and anguish for the students who are unfortunately going to get caught along with the members who are losing their pay, bearing the brunt of this industrial action.”
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