The official student newspaper of the University of East Anglia | Established 1992 | Issue 391 | 6th December 2022
Science: Dinosaur fraud
HOTW: A wonderful Christmas
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Venue: A cracking ballet
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Pay, pensions and pickets: UCU strikes hit UEA Jamie Bryson News Editor
In the year that has seen the greatest amount of collective industrial action across the country since the 1980s, it will have come as little surprise to many when the University and College Union (UCU) voted in October to hold three days of strike across UK universities last month. Many UEA lecturers and other staff members chose to withdraw their labour on Thursday 24th, Friday 25th and Wednesday 30th of November, as part of what the UCU claimed to be their “biggest picket line” in its history. The action inevitably caused significant disruption to many students' studies, with some facing no university attendance across the three days. In the interest of clarity and impartiality, Concrete spoke to both sides of the debate and conducted its own research to reflect the full and broad picture of the demands and issues that continue to be debated and negotiated.
offered a minimum raise of 3%, with lower-paid roles offered up to 9% against an inflation rate of around 10% (now 11.1%).
Questioned on this issue, a University of East Anglia spokesperson said, “We fully recognise the inflationary pressures currently facing the UEA community and have done our best to support jobs and staff ”. This latter remark leads to the union's second primary demand - “A restoration of USS pensions benefits”; under sectorwide budget cuts made in April this year, the average lecturer is set to lose 35% of their future guaranteed retirement income for the current financial year, and beyond (if the rate is not reinstated). Whilst the cuts were planned in previous financial years to make up for a £14.1bn deficit in the scheme due to the pandemic, the UCU highlights that “the scheme has since recovered and according to this week's monitoring report now holds a surplus of £5.6bn”.
So what are the UCU’s main unmet demands that led to them taking strike action, and what contexts should they consider? Firstly, they demand “A fair pay deal” - the union claims that average industry pay has decreased, in real terms, by 25% since 2009; the sector experienced a pay freeze in the first year of the pandemic, following a rise of between 1.8% and 3.6% in 2019/20. Staff then received a 1.5% average increase ahead of the 2021 academic year when inflation stood at 4.5%. Ahead of the current 2022/23 academic year, staff were
Furthermore, the scheme's data reveals that reinstating previous levels of employer contributions would now cost just 24.4% of its surplus budget. The General Secretary of the UCU, Jo Grady, has stated “The USS pension scheme is going from strength to strength, and there remains no credible reason why benefits should not be restored…if there is no commitment forthcoming to restore pension benefits, there will be further disruption in the New Year”.
The UEA’s spokesperson responded, “This is against a backdrop of the very difficult financial circumstances we and other universities face, driven by the unprecedented rises in our costs, Higher Education funding uncertainties and sizable increases in employers’ pension contributions”. Other primary demands include “the elimination of casualisation” where up to “90,000 staff lecturers
and other teaching staff ” are put on “insecure” fixed-term contracts with varying hours and pay and benefit conditions; “action on workloads” - where staff are “overworked” but paid the same rate; and lastly, “action on equality gaps” - a longerterm demand on closing a variety of socio-economic pay gaps arising in different settings across the sector.
is informal talks are going on, but as a technicality, they have yet to come to the table”.
The university claims that “along with other universities across the UK, [UEA] has been in active discussions with UCU nationally to help resolve this dispute. We will work hard to take steps to mitigate the impact of industrial action on our students. We Asked what message to send intend to ensure that disruption, in to students frustrated with the particular for students, is kept to a disruption, the UCU’s UEA branch minimum.” Chair, Michael Kyriacou, stated, “Myself and our members have many It is important to point out here - as conversations with our students highlighted by both Kyriacou and on this. We’re doing that, and we’re the university management - that working with the Students Union. the dispute is national. Terms and Disruption is really regrettable; conditions continue to be negotiated no one wants to be here, we’re not between lead negotiators from the getting paid, but we’re forced to be Joint National Committee for Higher here because, on a national level, Education Staff (JNCHES) of the UCU, our employers haven’t found a deal and the industry representative for us - they’ve been unwilling to body, Universities UK (UUK). Mr negotiate this deal. We have to get Kyriacou emphasised, "It’s not my them to the table. My understanding job to resolve this dispute - I’m not a national negotiator - and it’s not UEA’s job either; we generally have a good working relationship with the employer. It's the UCU and UUK’s job to resolve this, and they have to continually have those conversations with us so that we don’t have to continue to pull our labour”. Concrete will continue to keep readers updated on the national disputes and how they affect UEA students. For further details on the issues raised, we recommend visiting the UCU, UniversitiesUK, the SU and UEA websites, respectively. Any personal concerns or queries can be raised with AdviceSU or your course reps.
Photo: Concrete- Jamie Bryson