News

Plans are underway to hold the biggest ever aggregated ballots of the entire Higher Education sector regarding the pay and working conditions dispute (Four Fights) and USS pensions. The industrial action ballot will run during the Autumn.

The branch has the following vacancies on our Executive Committee, we are inviting members to come forward if they are interested in filling the following positions for which we didn't receive any nominations, in our recent branch election:

• Central Academic Staff Officer

• Central Academic-Related Staff Officer

• Regional/National Academic Staff Officer

• Regional/National Academic-Related Staff Officer

• Ordinary members x three places

The results of the industrial action re-ballot over changes to the USS pension scheme were announced on 12th April. This was a disaggregated ballot which mean results are counted by each employer. 

OU branch of UCU's USS ballot results

All branches USS ballot results page

Our Branch meeting on 4th March passed three motions for UCU's Congress and HE Sector Conference, the motions are now on our motions page. 

There has been some confusion in the university over the weekend strike dates. These dates were included for ALs who had scheduled tutorials or other weekend duties so they could participate fully in the action.

In Wales, the Open University branch of UCU has led representations to Senedd (Welsh Parliament) and found cross-party support on pensions and working conditions.

Two Members of Senedd, Mike Hedges (Labour) and Sioned Williams (Plaid Cymru) co-sponsored the event, having previously attended our lobby on the steps of Senedd two weeks earlier. Also giving strong support were Liberal Democrat Jane Dodds MS and several other Labour and Plaid Cymru Members. The Conservative Shadow Education Minister in Wales, Laura Anne Jones, attended and other ministers registered support.

We’ve been successfully lobbying the Welsh Senedd. Now we have been invited to present at an indoor event on the 23^rd March, to explain our disputes on pensions, pay and conditions and the impact that poor working conditions for university staff will have on students.

Members of the UCU branch at Queen Mary, University of London (QMUCU) are currently without any pay because their employer is docking 100% of salary for 'partial performance' for Action Short of a Strike - for those lecturers who refuse to reschedule classes that were cancelled during strike action.

UCU's Pension Negotiator Sam Marsh will give a presentation on the current USS situation on Thursday 17 March at 1pm via Teams. This is an open meeting and all university colleagues are welcome, you will need to be logged into the OU website. 

OU UCU members are taking part in national UCU action in two separate disputes:

• over devastating cuts to USS pensions
• and over falling pay and the employers' refusal to address pay gap, precarious employment and unsafe workloads.

UCU's higher education committee has called further waves of strike action in both the USS and Four Fights disputes which will ensure that the disruption continues across the sector until the end of term.