FAQs

The USS employers have imposed an inferior, two tier system which will see new starters receive much lower benefits; reduce protection of our pensions against inflation and reduce the amount staff receive if they are made redundant.

The proposals have been opposed by USS members in two referendums, and by UCU members in two industrial action ballots, but the employers have insisted on imposing them without further negotiation.

The employers initially proposed to UCU that all staff should be placed on the inferior ‘career average’ terms now to be offered to new starters. There is little doubt that unless we fight for our pensions now, they will seek to move existing USS members onto the inferior terms too over the next few years.

The objective of the action is to persuade the employers to sit down with the union and negotiate in good faith an agreement based on UCU’s counter-proposals, tabled earlier this year, or which compensates USS members for any detriment.

Without our efforts universities would cease to function properly.  As UCU’s Leading Counsel observes, universities survive because staff do over and above what is strictly required by their contracts.  This often means working long hours to get marking done; covering teaching for other colleagues; performing administrative tasks beyond those they were originally employed to do and many other things that staff do to ensure their institutions run effectively.

The point of this action is to say to our employers: until such time as you will negotiate properly with us, we will not be “going the extra mile”.

While the action causes significant disruption it is one step back from a boycott either of the REF or of assessment and therefore gives our employers an opportunity to come to their senses without widespread conflict and disruption.  UCU will try this tactic first and will only move to further escalating action if the employers either refuse to resume negotiations or impose punitive and unfair deductions on members taking part in the working to contract action.

A list of the institutions covered by the ballot is here.  If you are a member of UCU, you are expected to support the call to work to contract, and any other such future calls for action made by the union.  UCU, like other trade unions, does not allow any exemptions from the call to action.

In a legal ballot covering all UCU members in the sixty-seven institutions, 78% of UCU members who voted supported taking action short of a strike.  The ballot material said that if members voted for action the union would put in place a programme of ‘sustained industrial action’ which would definitely include action short of a strike consisting of a range of actions including “refusing to work beyond your contract; withdrawal of good will; boycotting of the external examinations process; targeting admissions procedures including open days; boycotting aspects of student assessment and examinations; boycotting research administration; refusing to provide cover for absent colleagues; and weekend working.”

As a member of UCU, you are therefore expected to take part in the action.

Starting on 10 October, 2011 the union is asking members to abide by the terms of their contracts (including their obligation to perform their duties in an efficient manner), but to do no more than that; and in particular to:

• to work no more than their contracted hours where those hours are expressly stated, and in any event not to exceed the maximum  number of hours per week stipulated in the Working Time Regulations;
• to perform no additional voluntary duties, such as out of hours cover, or covering for colleagues (unless such cover is contractually required);
• to undertake no duties in breach of health and safety policies or other significant employer’s policies
• 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 member.

Yes. The union has drawn up these plans acting on the advice of Leading Counsel.

UCU has not called upon non-members to take industrial action. However, nothing prevents them doing so as the action is not a breach of contract. If you are a non-member or know of non-members that wish to take part in the action, they should join UCU immediately at www.ucu.org.uk/join. We strongly advise you to join UCU before beginning any action.

You can make sure everyone knows you are participating in the action to defend your pension by downloading a door or desk poster here: http://defenduss.web.ucu.org.uk/files/2011/09/door-poster-bw3.pdf

Your local association will keep you updated with advice and news of the impact of the action.  If you have a query they should be your first port of call.

You should tell your students this:

From 10 October, I will be taking industrial action because my employer has refused to negotiate pension changes with my trade union, UCU. The changes have been rejected by more than 90% of staff but were still imposed. Future university staff stand to lose hundreds of thousands of pounds as a result while people like me will pay more, work longer and receive lower benefits.

The industrial action starts with me ‘working to contract’ which means that while I will not be doing extra work beyond that required, I will continue to do my best to support students. If this action does not persuade the employers to restart negotiations, my union will call rolling strikes and these will unfortunately undoubtedly mean disruption.

If you want to support our cause please contact the Vice Chancellor and ask them to publicly call for a resumption of negotiations.

The USS employers have imposed an inferior, two tier system which will see new starters receive much lower benefits; reduce protection of our pensions against inflation and reduce the amount staff receive if they are made redundant.

The proposals have been opposed by USS members in two referendums, and by UCU members in two industrial action ballots, but the employers have insisted on imposing them without further negotiation.

The employers initially proposed to UCU that all staff should be placed on the inferior ‘career average’ terms now to be offered to new starters. There is little doubt that unless we fight for our pensions now, they will seek to move existing USS members onto the inferior terms too over the next few years.

The objective of the action is to persuade the employers to sit down with the union and negotiate in good faith an agreement based on UCU’s counter-proposals, tabled earlier this year, or which compensates USS members for any detriment.

Without our efforts universities would cease to function properly.  As UCU’s Leading Counsel observes, universities survive because staff do over and above what is strictly required by their contracts.  This often means working long hours to get marking done; covering teaching for other colleagues; performing administrative tasks beyond those they were originally employed to do and many other things that staff do to ensure their institutions run effectively.

The point of this action is to say to our employers: until such time as you will negotiate properly with us, we will not be “going the extra mile”.

While the action causes significant disruption it is one step back from a boycott either of the REF or of assessment and therefore gives our employers an opportunity to come to their senses without widespread conflict and disruption.  UCU will try this tactic first and will only move to further escalating action if the employers either refuse to resume negotiations or impose punitive and unfair deductions on members taking part in the working to contract action.

A list of the institutions covered by the ballot is here.  If you are a member of UCU, you are expected to support the call to work to contract, and any other such future calls for action made by the union.  UCU, like other trade unions, does not allow any exemptions from the call to action.

In a legal ballot covering all UCU members in the sixty-seven institutions, 78% of UCU members who voted supported taking action short of a strike.  The ballot material said that if members voted for action the union would put in place a programme of ‘sustained industrial action’ which would definitely include action short of a strike consisting of a range of actions including “refusing to work beyond your contract; withdrawal of good will; boycotting of the external examinations process; targeting admissions procedures including open days; boycotting aspects of student assessment and examinations; boycotting research administration; refusing to provide cover for absent colleagues; and weekend working.”

As a member of UCU, you are therefore expected to take part in the action.

Starting on 10 October, 2011 the union is asking members to abide by the terms of their contracts (including their obligation to perform their duties in an efficient manner), but to do no more than that; and in particular to:

• to work no more than their contracted hours where those hours are expressly stated, and in any event not to exceed the maximum  number of hours per week stipulated in the Working Time Regulations;
• to perform no additional voluntary duties, such as out of hours cover, or covering for colleagues (unless such cover is contractually required);
• to undertake no duties in breach of health and safety policies or other significant employer’s policies
• 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 member.

Yes. The union has drawn up these plans acting on the advice of Leading Counsel.

If you are performing your normal duties but not undertaking activities over and above that, the employer has no justification for deducting your salary. UCU will challenge any attempts to make deductions from staff who are following the work to contract.

It is true that university employers are far more hard line than other public sector employers such as schools and hospitals with regard to making deductions for participating in action short of a strike. We believe there is no justification for making deductions from staff who are fulfilling their normal duties but if the employers seek to escalate the dispute in this way, the union will take the following steps:

1. Halt the working to contract action and bring forward with immediate effect rotating departmental strikes.

2. Bring test cases on behalf of all members to recover any deductions made unlawfully.

In extreme cases where this escalation fails to persuade an employer not to make unfair deductions for working to contract, members will be invited to seek an international academic boycott of their institution by other staff.

The vote for industrial action allows the union to call further action if the employers refuse to negotiate. In that case, the union will halt the working to contract action in order to organise rolling strike action within each institution with different groups of staff taking turns to take action in order to cause maximum disruption.

If that in turn does not produce a breakthrough in the dispute, the union will consider more serious action short of a strike, including a boycott of the Research Excellence Framework, other internal administrative processes, and of student assessment.

The union has chosen our action carefully in order to minimise disruption to students. Only where we are faced either with a employers who refuses to negotiate or one who implements an unfair, draconian pay docking policy will the union escalate to action which, regrettably, would have a high impact on students.

The working to contract action begins on 10 October.  You should NOT tell your employer about your participation in this action BEFORE that date.

Once the action has begun, if you are asked in writing by an appropriate person (line manager, HR etc), you should answer truthfully that you are participating as follows:

I confirm that I am participating in current industrial action organised by UCU, in the form of ‘working to contract’.  UCU advises me that because I am fulfilling all reasonable contractual duties, the employer should not make any unauthorised deductions from my salary.

You can make sure everyone knows you are participating in the action to defend your pension by downloading a door or desk poster here.

Your local association will keep you updated with advice and news of the impact of the action.  If you have a query they should be your first port of call.

Your contractual hours will be those expressed within your contract or within a collective agreement on workload between UCU and your employer.  Not all staff have clearly expressed contractual hours. You can find out your contractual hours position here.

In some cases, established hours can be derived from local workload collective agreements. In that case, you should work no more hours than expressed in this agreement. You can find out if we hold information on your local agreement here.

If we do not, please contact your branch.

The Working Time Regulations provide a right for workers no more than an average of 48 hours in any 7 day working time period. Unless your contract does or could require you to work weekends, the 7 day period does not include Saturday and Sunday, but a day is a 24 hour period so does include evenings. Surveys indicate that many academic and related staff work substantially more than this.

Our legal advice from Leading Counsel is that UCU members are covered by the Regulations and therefore that working within its limits is not a breach of contract. Consequently, working to contract is consistent with your contractual obligations as no employee can be required lawfully to work in excess of the WTR’s 48 hour limit over a sustained period of time.

All work which is part of your normal duties as set out in your contract will count towards your 48 hours.  For academics, for example, this typically will include teaching time, administration and research.

You will not be acting in breach of your contract if you stop working and resume the uncompleted task(s) in the following week. However, if a particular task must be completed by a specific deadline in that week, you should complete the task. If  your line manager asks why other duties were not completed you should inform them that you have been unable to complete the remainder of your normal duties within the limits either of your contractual hours or the Working Time Regulations, and that you will resume them in the following week.

It is important that all the tasks and functions you normally carry out are discharged. The work to rule does not mean that duties should not be done – it is simply a question of when you do them, and not exceeding the maximum hours stipulated in your contract or the WTR.

If you believe you are being asked to work too many hours, that is to say if you find that you cannot fulfil all your contractual duties within the hours limit in your contract, or the WTR (whichever is the greater) you should also make reference to your institution’s occupational stress or workload policies which will set out various duties upon the employer to address heavy workloads.

Refer to your contract in the first instance. If your contract does not or could not require you work in the evenings or at weekends you can refuse to work at those times. You can find out your contractual hours position here.

 If your contract shows that you can be required to work weekends, you should refer firstly to your contractual hours or any local workload agreement. If you believe you are being asked to work too many hours, that is to say if you find that you cannot fulfil all your contractual duties within the hours limit in your contract, or the Working Time Regulations (if you do not have contractual hours or a workload agreement or established practice) you should make reference to your institution’s occupational stress or workload policies which will set out various duties upon the employer to address heavy workloads.

If you have no contractual hours or local workload agreement, refer to the WTR. If your contract shows that you can be required to work at weekends, then these weekend days also count for the purposes of the calculation of the average 48 working hours. That means that you should work no more than an average of 48 hours over 7 days.

If you are asked to take on new duties in addition to your normal duties, which involve either evening or weekend working you should refuse citing the UCU working to contract action and pointing out your willingness to perform your normal contractual duties within reasonable weekly limits as set down either by your contract or the Working Time Regulations.

You should undertake your normal contractual duties and work your normal hours but not take on additional duties. If you are asked to take on additional duties, seek advice from the union. However, under no circumstances should you work more than the average 48 hours in any 7 day working time period laid down in the Working Time Regulations.

Our legal advice is that unless it is explicitly stated within your contract, you should refuse to cover for colleagues unless this is a clearly established custom and practice.

Yes, unless it is explicitly stated within your contract that you will undertake duties associated with your line manager, you should refuse to do so citing the UCU working to contract industrial action.

Yes. A recent Employment Appeals Tribunal case looked at whether someone who had been engaged as a lecturer in Theatre Studies could be asked to undertake teaching on an English course.  It found that ‘a management instruction [like this] to carry out duties which the Appellant was not contractually obliged to perform is unlikely to be reasonable.’

There is a general duty upon employees to be cooperative and you should continue to be so. However, the EAT case mentioned here states that ‘in our judgment whilst it may be necessary to imply a term of co-operation to govern performance of contractual duties it cannot be relied upon in this case to enlarge those duties.’

If you do not receive a copy within two weeks, you should complain to your line manager in writing to the effect that you are concerned that no assessment has been undertaken and that you do not wish to become complicit in your employer failing in a legal duty by working in a potentially unsafe environment. You can use the template text below:

Dear xxxxxxxxx

As an employee of xxxxxxxxxx, I am aware that I have the following rights in relation to Health and Safety regulations,

• as far as possible, to have any risks to my health and safety properly controlled
• to be provided, free of charge, with any personal protective and safety equipment
• to stop work and leave your work area, without being disciplined if I have reasonable concerns about my safety.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/HealthAndSafetyAtWork/DG_4016683

I am concerned that my employer is not currently fulfilling its duties in respect of these rights in the following ways______

I am mindful of my duty to work safely and my right to stop work and leave my work area. Unless my concerns are immediately dealt with, I will consult my union about further steps.

If you do receive a copy of your risk assessment, you should assess it, preferably in conjunction with your local UCU Health and Safety Representative or branch Health and Safety Officer. Identify whether or not the risk assessment is ‘suitable and sufficient’: have all hazards been identified; is the assessed level of risk appropriate; are the proposed control measures effective and operational; does the risk assessment need to be reviewed?

If you and your safety reps are satisfied that there are hazards in your workspace that are not identified in the risk assessment, you should immediately demand that another is conducted by a competent person, stating that you are concerned about safety in your job using the following wording:

Dear xxxxxxxxx

As an employee of xxxxxxxxxx, I am aware that I have the following rights in relation to Health and Safety regulations,

• as far as possible, to have any risks to my health and safety properly controlled
• to be provided, free of charge, with any personal protective and safety equipment
• to stop work and leave your work area, without being disciplined if I have reasonable concerns about my safety.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/HealthAndSafetyAtWork/DG_4016683

I am concerned that my employer is not currently fulfilling its duties in respect of these rights in the following ways______

I am mindful of my duty to work safely and my right to stop work and leave my work area. Unless my concerns are immediately dealt with, I will consult my union about further steps.

• Write to the university’s Health and Safety office requesting in writing, copies of all risk assessments requested by members of staff for which they have responsibility.
• Complain in every case where these are not provided, citing the legal duty on the employer to maintain and provide such records.
• Assess whether or not these are adequate risk assessment documents, using our guidance here: http://www.ucu.org.uk/hsfacts
• Call for the establishment of a joint committee to monitor and control all risk assessments in the college/university.

Yes. The Regulations do not contain detailed technical specifications or lists of approved equipment. Instead, they set more general objectives. Employers have to:

• Analyse workstations, and assess and reduce risks – Employers need to look at the whole workstation including equipment, furniture, and the work environment; the job being done; and any special needs of individual staff.
• Ensure workstations meet minimum requirements 
• Plan work so there are breaks or changes of activity 
• On request arrange eye tests, and provide spectacles if special ones are needed 
• Provide health and safety training and information 

Every employer will have a DSE policy. Find out more details about what your employer should be doing here (pdf). 

Your institution will have a specific policy which will tell you how they propose to comply with the regulations and how you can request an assessment of your work station and access eye tests and other remedial actions and resources. Every member should make use of this policy. You can find your institution’s policy is here.

Manual handling is one of the most common causes of injury at work and causes over a third of all workplace injuries which include work related Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) such as upper and lower limb pain/disorders, joint and repetitive strain injuries of various kinds.

Your employer must abide by the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992. These apply to a wide range of manual handling activities, including lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling or carrying.

The regulations require employers to:

• avoid the need for hazardous manual handling, so far as is reasonably practicable
• assess the risk of injury from any hazardous manual handling that can’t be avoided; and
• reduce the risk of injury from hazardous manual handling, so far as is reasonably practicable.

Your employer will have a specific policy adapting these regulations for your workplace. Your employer has an obligation to undertake manual handling risk assessments and ensure that employees receive manual handling training.

All employees covered by a risk assessment – including generic assessments should be told about the risks it identifies, so you should ask for a copy of the manual handling risk assessment on your job and workspace.

Your institution will have a specific manual handling policy that will tell you more about your and your employer’s responsibilities, which you can access here.

Employees have duties too. They should:

• follow appropriate systems of work laid down for their safety
• make proper use of equipment provided for their safety
• co-operate with their employer on health and safety matters
• inform the employer if they identify hazardous handling activities
• take care to ensure that their activities do not put others at risk.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg143.pdf

You should avoid and report any high risk activities in your working processes to your management. Examples of high risk activities are twisting the trunk; stooping; reaching upwards or forwards from the trunk; considerable lifting and lowering distances and any combination of the above movements.

It is then your employer’s responsibility to modify your work activities or workplace to minimise these risks.

Staff are often placed under pressure by their institution to conclude their marking or second marking speedily in on order to ensure internal deadlines are met.

However staff have a responsibility to ensure that quality standards are being maintained, even if this means deadlines have to slip.

Academic staff should therefore take due care and consideration when marking work, ensuring that they are precisely meeting the guidelines both from the university itself and from the QAA.

Second marking or blind marking should be undertaken with similar due care and consideration, with staff again ensuring that they are precisely meeting the guidelines both from the university itself and the QAA.

Under no circumstances should staff allow themselves to be rushed by their institution to the extent that they are unable to fully meet the terms of both the university and the QAA guidelines.

It is  clear that the volume of academic workloads is forcing many members to mark students’ work outside normal hours in order to meet internal feedback  deadlines. In this case, our advice is that you should mark or second mark all scripts thoroughly and properly and to the letter of your department or QAA guidelines and that you should do this within your normal working patterns.

If you are pressured to cut corners or work extra hours to meet the deadlines report this to the union immediately and ask your line manager to put their instruction in writing including which of your other duties you should not do in order to complete marking; which aspects of the marking process they wish you to cut corners on in order to speed up; and also what they intend to do to meet their obligation to ensure your health, safety and wellbeing with particular regard to realistic workload and deadlines for tasks.

You should inform your line manager that, in accordance with your contract, you are fully complying with the University, department and QAA guidance and will therefore be unable to complete your marking or second marking by the required deadline.

If staff within a department take a consistent approach to this, and submit similar messages to the line manager this will have a substantial impact.

Where can I get further information about the the Quality Assurance Agency’s Code of Practice for the Assurance of Academic Quality and Standards in Higher Education?

The Code of Practice recommends that all institutions should have transparent and fair mechanisms for marking and moderating marks and can be read here (pdf).

This may normally be determined in relation to different programmes at department or faculty level, but you can find your institution’s policies on marking and assessment detailed here.

If you are in doubt you should ask your head of department whether attendance is voluntary or mandatory. If they say you must attend, ask them to put in writing direct to you and take it up with your rep. A written instruction to you does not count as a general instruction to all, so other members should seek individual confirmation that they are also required to attend.

You could write using the following formulation:

“As you know, UCU members are currently working to contract and this action includes non-attendance at voluntary meetings. Consequently, I am writing to ask you to confirm in writing whether you require my attendance at [name of meeting].”

Advice for Heads of Department/Heads of School

Many of the union’s strongest members are in senior roles as heads of department or schools. 

Senior staff can play an active role in the dispute by working to contract just like everyone else and also as follows:

• Working within your own contract and not acting up for other staff.
• Encourage your staff to seek clarity from yourself on an individual basis on whether they should be performing any given tasks in relation to the dispute.
• Make sure that you always refer a query from a UCU member related to the dispute to your senior managers before responding.
• Make sure that you refer each individual query and avoid issuing blanket guidance.
• Ensure that you support your staff who are following to the letter the quality guidelines in place for marking and second marking and as far as possible shield them from pressure. 
• Boost morale in the department by making it clear to all that you are supporting the union’s work to contract action.
• Download a poster to put up on your door here

 For example, one Head of Department wrote to their members of staff the following:

 “Being in a managerial position, I expect that colleagues will bombard me with requests.  UCU’s advice is that I should forward these requests to my Head of School.  In principle, if enough requests are generated, decision making will become paralysed. In practice, many managers will try to issue guidance covering all situations.  UCU’s advice is to ignore blanket guidance and to ask about every single piece of activity that has not been agreed in advance with a manager and which is not clearly covered by the standard contract.”

When working to contract, hourly paid staff should ensure that they work no more hours than those for which they are contracted and receive payment. Where payment is comprehensive i.e. it includes an element of preparation/marking/administrative time/holiday pay for every teaching hour it is important to know how much addition time is being paid. If this is not clear from the contract and/or payslip then hourly paid staff should request from human resources an explanation of how their pay is calculated.

Once advised how many hours are being paid for every teaching hour, hourly paid staff will have the information they need to observe the working to contract action being called by UCU.

If you are instructed to do something which you have not regularly done previously and you consider to be outside your normal contractual duties, insist that the line manager puts the instruction in writing to you. You may be able to rely on the EAT decision mentioned here. You should also  seek advice from a UCU rep.

Under no circumstances should you operate equipment upon which you have not been properly trained and for which there has not been a recent risk assessment.

Staff should always take lunch or alternative breaks and breaks from working at your computer.  You should ask your line manager to put it in writing to you if are told not to take a lunch break because you have too much work to do and raise this with your UCU rep.

If your work is dependent upon a manager’s instruction you should wait until you are instructed to perform duties before beginning work.

If your manager is away and you send them a query about a work matter, do not continue working on this matter until you have received a response.

We need to use hit and run tactics and be the biggest pain in the backside to management, without getting into trouble as individuals. If management insist on you complying with an instruction, do not lay yourself open to disciplinary action. Comply under duress, and raise a formal grievance by speaking to your local rep. It is totally legitimate to raise a grievance against a decision that you disagree with and it will cause further disruption. Most importantly, if you have any doubts regarding the consequences of a particular course of action, contact a branch official for advice. We cannot guarantee an immediate answer in all cases, but we will get an answer as quickly as we are able to.

If you need any advice or have a query on what you are being asked to do please contact your union rep immediately.

The action UCU members are taking is perfectly legal. If you are put under undue pressure or coercion by line managers to withdraw from the action, you should ask the manager concerned to put their instructions in writing and tell UCU immediately. UCU will not hesitate to launch collective grievances or institute further industrial action in support of members who are bullied while taking part in lawful industrial action.

UCU has not called upon non-members to take industrial action. However, nothing prevents them doing so as the action is not a breach of contract. If you are a non-member or know of non-members that wish to take part in the action, they should join UCU immediately at www.ucu.org.uk/join. We strongly advise you to join UCU before beginning any action.

If you are invited to attend an interview, ensure that you take a UCU representative with you. In the interview, which should take place only between yourself and a line manager with a UCU representative present, the manager instructs you to complete a task you should agree to carry out the task. The instruction applies only to you.

You can make sure everyone knows you are participating in the action to defend your pension by downloading a door or desk poster here: http://defenduss.web.ucu.org.uk/files/2011/09/door-poster-bw3.pdf

Your local association will keep you updated with advice and news of the impact of the action.  If you have a query they should be your first port of call.

Even if your contract says this and there is no local agreement that limits working hours, there is still a lot that you can do under the work-to-contract.

1. If you have a departmental workload management system or agreement that regulates your working hours and the distribution of your duties, observe this strictly.
2. You should undertake your normal contractual duties and work your normal customary hours but not take on additional duties. If you are asked to take on additional duties, or work extra hours to perform those duties, seek advice from the union. Under no circumstances should you work more than the average 48 hours in any 7 day working time period laid down in the Working Time Regulations, even if it is normally the case that you do so.
3. You should work-to-rule in relation to your marking. Take due care and consideration when marking work, ensuring that they are precisely meeting the guidelines both from the university itself and from the QAA. Staff are often placed under pressure by their institution to conclude their marking or second marking speedily in order to ensure internal deadlines are met. However staff have a responsibility to ensure that quality standards are being maintained, even if this means deadlines have to slip. If you find yourself falling behind, you should inform your line manager that, in accordance with your contract, you are fully complying with the University, department and QAA guidance and will therefore be unable to complete your marking or second marking by the required deadline. Read more on this here
4. You should attend no meetings where such attendance is voluntary on the part of the member. Get more advice on this here
5. Remember to ensure that you are working in a safe and healthy environment. You can find lots of guidance on doing this here

Only you will know precisely what kinds of duties fall outside your normal duties. In determining whether something you are asked to do is an ‘additional duty’, our legal advice is that you should ask yourself whether you are being asked to ‘go the extra mile’. Ask yourself, have I been asked to do this previously? Was I contracted to do this? Is reasonable account being taken of the additional workload involved? A manager’s right to ask you to undertake reasonable duties must be balanced against an employee’s reasonable right to refuse if their contract does not make it explicit that they are expected to perform a given duty.

Some examples might be:

• being asked to sit on a committee that you do not normally attend without account being taken of the extra workload involved
• being asked to second mark on a course that you do not normally second mark for, again without account being taken of the additional workload
• being given extra administrative responsibilities on top of your normal workload
• being asked to teach on a subject that you were not contracted to teach.

The union’s advice is based on Leading Counsel’s opinion that you should ‘not going the extra mile’ as part of this action.  Therefore while you should perform your normal duties if you cannot get them done either within your contractual hours or the weekly hours specified by the working time directive or finishing the task is putting you under considerable stress you should inform management that you have too much work for a normal working week and ask them for a formal, written response setting out how they intend to address the overload.

Where possible, quote from your university’s occupational stress policy which management need to honour.

You should tell your students this:

From 10 October, I will be taking industrial action because my employer has refused to negotiate pension changes with my trade union, UCU. The changes have been rejected by more than 90% of staff but were still imposed. Future university staff stand to lose hundreds of thousands of pounds as a result while people like me will pay more, work longer and receive lower benefits.

The industrial action starts with me ‘working to contract’ which means that while I will not be doing extra work beyond that required, I will continue to do my best to support students. If this action does not persuade the employers to restart negotiations, my union will call rolling strikes and these will unfortunately undoubtedly mean disruption.

If you want to support our cause please contact the Vice Chancellor and ask them to publicly call for a resumption of negotiations.

In determining whether setting and marking given pieces of work are beyond your contractual obligations, you should ask yourself these questions

1. Is marking and setting work part of your job?
2. Is what you are being asked to set or mark consistent with your contract and your area of expertise?
3. Are you following to the letter the marking or second marking protocols in place in your department or institution?

 If you are doing (3) and are asked to speed up, respond that you are following your appropriate policies and procedures as laid out in your institution’s policies here. Ask your head of department or line manager to put in writing that they want you to speed up and request that they highlighting which parts of the protocols governing marking you should disregard.

Many members are asking us whether they should be attending their institutions’ open days or similar events. Our advice is that unless your contract makes it explicit that attendance at such events is part of your contractual duties, such events fall under the category of voluntary meetings and you are not therefore under any obligation to attend. If you are in doubt, you can use our guidance on how to determine whether a meeting or event is voluntary here 

Your legal duties as an employee include:

• taking reasonable care for your own health and safety and that of others who may be affected by what you do or do not do
• co-operating with your employer on health and safety
• correctly using work items provided by your employer, including personal protective equipment, in accordance with training or instructions; and
• not interfering with or misusing anything provided for your health, safety or welfare.

Every employer must have conducted a risk assessment on your job and must have recorded significant points. Regulation 10(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 stipulates that your employer has a duty to provide you with this information.

Your institution will have a health and safety policy that lays out the responsibilities of employees and various layers of management for dealing with health and safety issues. You can find your institution’s policy here.

You should request a copy of the risk assessment on your job and workspace. Your institution has a legal duty to provide you with a copy of this risk assessment document. This will probably sit with your line manager or the university’s safety office. You should write to your line manager or head of department in the first instance.

If you do not receive a copy within two weeks, you should complain to your line manager in writing to the effect that you are concerned that no assessment has been undertaken and that you do not wish to become complicit in your employer failing in a legal duty by working in a potentially unsafe environment. You can use the template text below:

Dear xxxxxxxxx

As an employee of xxxxxxxxxx, I am aware that I have the following rights in relation to Health and Safety regulations,

• as far as possible, to have any risks to my health and safety properly controlled
• to be provided, free of charge, with any personal protective and safety equipment
• to stop work and leave your work area, without being disciplined if I have reasonable concerns about my safety.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/HealthAndSafetyAtWork/DG_4016683

I am concerned that my employer is not currently fulfilling its duties in respect of these rights in the following ways______

I am mindful of my duty to work safely and my right to stop work and leave my work area. Unless my concerns are immediately dealt with, I will consult my union about further steps.

If you do receive a copy of your risk assessment, you should assess it, preferably in conjunction with your local UCU Health and Safety Representative or branch Health and Safety Officer. Identify whether or not the risk assessment is ‘suitable and sufficient’: have all hazards been identified; is the assessed level of risk appropriate; are the proposed control measures effective and operational; does the risk assessment need to be reviewed?

If you and your safety reps are satisfied that there are hazards in your workspace that are not identified in the risk assessment, you should immediately demand that another is conducted by a competent person, stating that you are concerned about safety in your job using the following wording:

Dear xxxxxxxxx

As an employee of xxxxxxxxxx, I am aware that I have the following rights in relation to Health and Safety regulations,

• as far as possible, to have any risks to my health and safety properly controlled
• to be provided, free of charge, with any personal protective and safety equipment
• to stop work and leave your work area, without being disciplined if I have reasonable concerns about my safety.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/HealthAndSafetyAtWork/DG_4016683

I am concerned that my employer is not currently fulfilling its duties in respect of these rights in the following ways______

I am mindful of my duty to work safely and my right to stop work and leave my work area. Unless my concerns are immediately dealt with, I will consult my union about further steps.

• Write to the university’s Health and Safety office requesting in writing, copies of all risk assessments requested by members of staff for which they have responsibility.
• Complain in every case where these are not provided, citing the legal duty on the employer to maintain and provide such records.
• Assess whether or not these are adequate risk assessment documents, using our guidance here: http://www.ucu.org.uk/hsfacts
• Call for the establishment of a joint committee to monitor and control all risk assessments in the college/university.

As the HSE says, ‘Computer workstations or equipment can be associated with neck, shoulder, back or arm pain, as well as with fatigue and eyestrain. Surveys have found that a high proportion of DSE workers report aches, pains or eye discomfort. These aches and pains are sometimes called upper limb disorders (ULDs), which can include a range of medical conditions such as RSI. Most of these conditions do not indicate any serious ill health, but it makes sense to avoid them as far as possible. The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 aim to protect the health of people who work with DSE. The Regulations were introduced because DSE has become one of the most common kinds of work equipment.’

UCU believes that most members fall under the category of DSE users. That means that they are covered by these Health and Safety regulations.

Yes. The Regulations do not contain detailed technical specifications or lists of approved equipment. Instead, they set more general objectives. Employers have to:

• Analyse workstations, and assess and reduce risks – Employers need to look at the whole workstation including equipment, furniture, and the work environment; the job being done; and any special needs of individual staff.
• Ensure workstations meet minimum requirements 
• Plan work so there are breaks or changes of activity 
• On request arrange eye tests, and provide spectacles if special ones are needed 
• Provide health and safety training and information 

Every employer will have a DSE policy. Find out more details about what your employer should be doing here (pdf). 

Your institution will have a specific policy which will tell you how they propose to comply with the regulations and how you can request an assessment of your work station and access eye tests and other remedial actions and resources. Every member should make use of this policy. You can find your institution’s policy is here.

Manual handling is one of the most common causes of injury at work and causes over a third of all workplace injuries which include work related Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) such as upper and lower limb pain/disorders, joint and repetitive strain injuries of various kinds.

Your employer must abide by the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992. These apply to a wide range of manual handling activities, including lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling or carrying.

The regulations require employers to:

• avoid the need for hazardous manual handling, so far as is reasonably practicable
• assess the risk of injury from any hazardous manual handling that can’t be avoided; and
• reduce the risk of injury from hazardous manual handling, so far as is reasonably practicable.

Your employer will have a specific policy adapting these regulations for your workplace. Your employer has an obligation to undertake manual handling risk assessments and ensure that employees receive manual handling training.

All employees covered by a risk assessment – including generic assessments should be told about the risks it identifies, so you should ask for a copy of the manual handling risk assessment on your job and workspace.

Your institution will have a specific manual handling policy that will tell you more about your and your employer’s responsibilities, which you can access here.

Employees have duties too. They should:

• follow appropriate systems of work laid down for their safety
• make proper use of equipment provided for their safety
• co-operate with their employer on health and safety matters
• inform the employer if they identify hazardous handling activities
• take care to ensure that their activities do not put others at risk.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg143.pdf

You should avoid and report any high risk activities in your working processes to your management. Examples of high risk activities are twisting the trunk; stooping; reaching upwards or forwards from the trunk; considerable lifting and lowering distances and any combination of the above movements.

It is then your employer’s responsibility to modify your work activities or workplace to minimise these risks.

Under no circumstances should you operate equipment upon which you have not been properly trained and for which there has not been a recent risk assessment.

If you are in doubt you should ask your head of department whether attendance is voluntary or mandatory. If they say you must attend, ask them to put in writing direct to you and take it up with your rep. A written instruction to you does not count as a general instruction to all, so other members should seek individual confirmation that they are also required to attend.

You could write using the following formulation:

“As you know, UCU members are currently working to contract and this action includes non-attendance at voluntary meetings. Consequently, I am writing to ask you to confirm in writing whether you require my attendance at [name of meeting].”

Many members are asking us whether they should be attending their institutions’ open days or similar events. Our advice is that unless your contract makes it explicit that attendance at such events is part of your contractual duties, such events fall under the category of voluntary meetings and you are not therefore under any obligation to attend. If you are in doubt, you can use our guidance on how to determine whether a meeting or event is voluntary here 

Your contractual hours will be those expressed within your contract or within a collective agreement on workload between UCU and your employer.  Not all staff have clearly expressed contractual hours. You can find out your contractual hours position here.

In some cases, established hours can be derived from local workload collective agreements. In that case, you should work no more hours than expressed in this agreement. You can find out if we hold information on your local agreement here.

If we do not, please contact your branch.

The Working Time Regulations provide a right for workers no more than an average of 48 hours in any 7 day working time period. Unless your contract does or could require you to work weekends, the 7 day period does not include Saturday and Sunday, but a day is a 24 hour period so does include evenings. Surveys indicate that many academic and related staff work substantially more than this.

Our legal advice from Leading Counsel is that UCU members are covered by the Regulations and therefore that working within its limits is not a breach of contract. Consequently, working to contract is consistent with your contractual obligations as no employee can be required lawfully to work in excess of the WTR’s 48 hour limit over a sustained period of time.

All work which is part of your normal duties as set out in your contract will count towards your 48 hours.  For academics, for example, this typically will include teaching time, administration and research.

You will not be acting in breach of your contract if you stop working and resume the uncompleted task(s) in the following week. However, if a particular task must be completed by a specific deadline in that week, you should complete the task. If  your line manager asks why other duties were not completed you should inform them that you have been unable to complete the remainder of your normal duties within the limits either of your contractual hours or the Working Time Regulations, and that you will resume them in the following week.

It is important that all the tasks and functions you normally carry out are discharged. The work to rule does not mean that duties should not be done – it is simply a question of when you do them, and not exceeding the maximum hours stipulated in your contract or the WTR.

If you believe you are being asked to work too many hours, that is to say if you find that you cannot fulfil all your contractual duties within the hours limit in your contract, or the WTR (whichever is the greater) you should also make reference to your institution’s occupational stress or workload policies which will set out various duties upon the employer to address heavy workloads.

Refer to your contract in the first instance. If your contract does not or could not require you work in the evenings or at weekends you can refuse to work at those times. You can find out your contractual hours position here.

 If your contract shows that you can be required to work weekends, you should refer firstly to your contractual hours or any local workload agreement. If you believe you are being asked to work too many hours, that is to say if you find that you cannot fulfil all your contractual duties within the hours limit in your contract, or the Working Time Regulations (if you do not have contractual hours or a workload agreement or established practice) you should make reference to your institution’s occupational stress or workload policies which will set out various duties upon the employer to address heavy workloads.

If you have no contractual hours or local workload agreement, refer to the WTR. If your contract shows that you can be required to work at weekends, then these weekend days also count for the purposes of the calculation of the average 48 working hours. That means that you should work no more than an average of 48 hours over 7 days.

If you are asked to take on new duties in addition to your normal duties, which involve either evening or weekend working you should refuse citing the UCU working to contract action and pointing out your willingness to perform your normal contractual duties within reasonable weekly limits as set down either by your contract or the Working Time Regulations.

You should undertake your normal contractual duties and work your normal hours but not take on additional duties. If you are asked to take on additional duties, seek advice from the union. However, under no circumstances should you work more than the average 48 hours in any 7 day working time period laid down in the Working Time Regulations.

Even if your contract says this and there is no local agreement that limits working hours, there is still a lot that you can do under the work-to-contract.

1. If you have a departmental workload management system or agreement that regulates your working hours and the distribution of your duties, observe this strictly.
2. You should undertake your normal contractual duties and work your normal customary hours but not take on additional duties. If you are asked to take on additional duties, or work extra hours to perform those duties, seek advice from the union. Under no circumstances should you work more than the average 48 hours in any 7 day working time period laid down in the Working Time Regulations, even if it is normally the case that you do so.
3. You should work-to-rule in relation to your marking. Take due care and consideration when marking work, ensuring that they are precisely meeting the guidelines both from the university itself and from the QAA. Staff are often placed under pressure by their institution to conclude their marking or second marking speedily in order to ensure internal deadlines are met. However staff have a responsibility to ensure that quality standards are being maintained, even if this means deadlines have to slip. If you find yourself falling behind, you should inform your line manager that, in accordance with your contract, you are fully complying with the University, department and QAA guidance and will therefore be unable to complete your marking or second marking by the required deadline. Read more on this here
4. You should attend no meetings where such attendance is voluntary on the part of the member. Get more advice on this here
5. Remember to ensure that you are working in a safe and healthy environment. You can find lots of guidance on doing this here

Only you will know precisely what kinds of duties fall outside your normal duties. In determining whether something you are asked to do is an ‘additional duty’, our legal advice is that you should ask yourself whether you are being asked to ‘go the extra mile’. Ask yourself, have I been asked to do this previously? Was I contracted to do this? Is reasonable account being taken of the additional workload involved? A manager’s right to ask you to undertake reasonable duties must be balanced against an employee’s reasonable right to refuse if their contract does not make it explicit that they are expected to perform a given duty.

Some examples might be:

• being asked to sit on a committee that you do not normally attend without account being taken of the extra workload involved
• being asked to second mark on a course that you do not normally second mark for, again without account being taken of the additional workload
• being given extra administrative responsibilities on top of your normal workload
• being asked to teach on a subject that you were not contracted to teach.

Staff should always take lunch or alternative breaks and breaks from working at your computer.  You should ask your line manager to put it in writing to you if are told not to take a lunch break because you have too much work to do and raise this with your UCU rep.

The union’s advice is based on Leading Counsel’s opinion that you should ‘not going the extra mile’ as part of this action.  Therefore while you should perform your normal duties if you cannot get them done either within your contractual hours or the weekly hours specified by the working time directive or finishing the task is putting you under considerable stress you should inform management that you have too much work for a normal working week and ask them for a formal, written response setting out how they intend to address the overload.

Where possible, quote from your university’s occupational stress policy which management need to honour.

Staff are often placed under pressure by their institution to conclude their marking or second marking speedily in on order to ensure internal deadlines are met.

However staff have a responsibility to ensure that quality standards are being maintained, even if this means deadlines have to slip.

Academic staff should therefore take due care and consideration when marking work, ensuring that they are precisely meeting the guidelines both from the university itself and from the QAA.

Second marking or blind marking should be undertaken with similar due care and consideration, with staff again ensuring that they are precisely meeting the guidelines both from the university itself and the QAA.

Under no circumstances should staff allow themselves to be rushed by their institution to the extent that they are unable to fully meet the terms of both the university and the QAA guidelines.

It is  clear that the volume of academic workloads is forcing many members to mark students’ work outside normal hours in order to meet internal feedback  deadlines. In this case, our advice is that you should mark or second mark all scripts thoroughly and properly and to the letter of your department or QAA guidelines and that you should do this within your normal working patterns.

If you are pressured to cut corners or work extra hours to meet the deadlines report this to the union immediately and ask your line manager to put their instruction in writing including which of your other duties you should not do in order to complete marking; which aspects of the marking process they wish you to cut corners on in order to speed up; and also what they intend to do to meet their obligation to ensure your health, safety and wellbeing with particular regard to realistic workload and deadlines for tasks.

You should inform your line manager that, in accordance with your contract, you are fully complying with the University, department and QAA guidance and will therefore be unable to complete your marking or second marking by the required deadline.

If staff within a department take a consistent approach to this, and submit similar messages to the line manager this will have a substantial impact.

Where can I get further information about the the Quality Assurance Agency’s Code of Practice for the Assurance of Academic Quality and Standards in Higher Education?

The Code of Practice recommends that all institutions should have transparent and fair mechanisms for marking and moderating marks and can be read here (pdf).

This may normally be determined in relation to different programmes at department or faculty level, but you can find your institution’s policies on marking and assessment detailed here.

In determining whether setting and marking given pieces of work are beyond your contractual obligations, you should ask yourself these questions

1. Is marking and setting work part of your job?
2. Is what you are being asked to set or mark consistent with your contract and your area of expertise?
3. Are you following to the letter the marking or second marking protocols in place in your department or institution?

 If you are doing (3) and are asked to speed up, respond that you are following your appropriate policies and procedures as laid out in your institution’s policies here. Ask your head of department or line manager to put in writing that they want you to speed up and request that they highlighting which parts of the protocols governing marking you should disregard.

Our legal advice is that unless it is explicitly stated within your contract, you should refuse to cover for colleagues unless this is a clearly established custom and practice.

Yes, unless it is explicitly stated within your contract that you will undertake duties associated with your line manager, you should refuse to do so citing the UCU working to contract industrial action.

Yes. A recent Employment Appeals Tribunal case looked at whether someone who had been engaged as a lecturer in Theatre Studies could be asked to undertake teaching on an English course.  It found that ‘a management instruction [like this] to carry out duties which the Appellant was not contractually obliged to perform is unlikely to be reasonable.’

There is a general duty upon employees to be cooperative and you should continue to be so. However, the EAT case mentioned here states that ‘in our judgment whilst it may be necessary to imply a term of co-operation to govern performance of contractual duties it cannot be relied upon in this case to enlarge those duties.’

Only you will know precisely what kinds of duties fall outside your normal duties. In determining whether something you are asked to do is an ‘additional duty’, our legal advice is that you should ask yourself whether you are being asked to ‘go the extra mile’. Ask yourself, have I been asked to do this previously? Was I contracted to do this? Is reasonable account being taken of the additional workload involved? A manager’s right to ask you to undertake reasonable duties must be balanced against an employee’s reasonable right to refuse if their contract does not make it explicit that they are expected to perform a given duty.

Some examples might be:

• being asked to sit on a committee that you do not normally attend without account being taken of the extra workload involved
• being asked to second mark on a course that you do not normally second mark for, again without account being taken of the additional workload
• being given extra administrative responsibilities on top of your normal workload
• being asked to teach on a subject that you were not contracted to teach.

The union’s advice is based on Leading Counsel’s opinion that you should ‘not going the extra mile’ as part of this action.  Therefore while you should perform your normal duties if you cannot get them done either within your contractual hours or the weekly hours specified by the working time directive or finishing the task is putting you under considerable stress you should inform management that you have too much work for a normal working week and ask them for a formal, written response setting out how they intend to address the overload.

Where possible, quote from your university’s occupational stress policy which management need to honour.

If you need any advice or have a query on what you are being asked to do please contact your union rep immediately.

The action UCU members are taking is perfectly legal. If you are put under undue pressure or coercion by line managers to withdraw from the action, you should ask the manager concerned to put their instructions in writing and tell UCU immediately. UCU will not hesitate to launch collective grievances or institute further industrial action in support of members who are bullied while taking part in lawful industrial action.

If you are invited to attend an interview, ensure that you take a UCU representative with you. In the interview, which should take place only between yourself and a line manager with a UCU representative present, the manager instructs you to complete a task you should agree to carry out the task. The instruction applies only to you.