Industrial Action staff FAQs

A marking and assessment boycott is a form of action short of strike (ASOS) whereas strike action is a stoppage of all work. Where staff are engaging in the marking and assessment boycott and/or other forms of ASOS that have been sanctioned by UCU, they should continue all other normal duties.

UCU has announced its intention to begin a marking and assessment boycott from 20 April 2023. The boycott will continue until either UCU call it off or the ballot mandate expires on 30 September 2023.

UCU has not provided the University with any further detail of what types of work the marking and assessment boycott will include. However, according to UCU’s guidance to its members: the boycott will cover all marking and assessment processes that contribute to summative assessment decisions for students. This includes both final assessments for those who will be completing their studies and the interim assessments where progression decisions are made. It covers all forms of assessment, both written and verbal, for example, coursework and examination marking, assessment of fieldwork, exhibits, practical work, scientific experiments, presentations, posters etc.

The boycott also covers assessment-related work such as exam invigilation, processing of marks, submission of marks through any university administrative procedure, distribution of scripts/ papers to be marked, organisation of, and preparation for, exams, assessment boards and meetings.

As the above is an extract from UCU’s guidance to its members, it may be subject to change and therefore should not be regarded as a definitive list of all activities which may be included within a marking and assessment boycott.

Much of the marking and assessment work is carried out by academic staff, however, UCU are also encouraging Professional Services colleagues whose roles involve marking and assessment duties, to engage in the marking and assessment boycott by refusing to undertake tasks that relate to assessment or marking, such as the associated administrative tasks.

Yes, in addition to the marking and assessment boycott, five other forms of ASOS will continue. These are:

• Working to contract
• Not undertaking any voluntary activities
• Not covering for absent colleagues
• Removing uploaded material related to, and/or not sharing materials related to, lectures or classes that will be or have been cancelled as a result of strike action
• Not rescheduling lectures or classes cancelled due to strike action

Should a member of staff take part in the marking and assessment boycott, pay will commence being withheld continuously at the rate of 50% from the beginning of week 12 at the earliest (9 May 2023, taking into account the bank holiday on 8 May). Since responsibilities for the broad range of activities associated with marking and assessment extend until the end of term, for the vast majority of staff, pay will be continuously withheld until 23 June 2023. There are some exceptions to this which are detailed below.

For staff engaging in the following three forms of ASOS currently sanctioned by UCU there will be no reduction of pay, provided that staff continue to work their contracted hours and duties and respond to reasonable management requests to prioritise their workload to minimise the impact of industrial action on student learning, outcomes and experience:

• Working to contract
• Not undertaking any voluntary activities
• Not covering for absent colleagues

The University regards the following forms of ASOS as partial performance of duties, which will not be accepted. Should a member of staff engage in these following forms of ASOS and fail to mitigate the impact of such actions to the satisfaction of the Head of Department, the University will pay staff at the rate of 50% only until such time as the Head of Department is content that the matter has been adequately mitigated:

• Removing uploaded materials related to, and/or not sharing materials related to, lectures or classes that will be or have been cancelled as a result of strike action
• Not rescheduling lectures or classes cancelled due to strike action

In the case of rescheduling lost teaching, there will be no penalty if the member of staff agrees with their Head of Department or School a suitable method of mitigating lost student learning.  This approach was discussed at some length last year with BUCU.

The University reserves the legal right to further reduce pay for ASOS and withhold up to 100% of pay for ASOS where such action amounts to partial performance of contract, and particularly if a member of staff refuses to either fulfil their contracted hours or duties, respond to a reasonable management request or engages in a form of ASOS not currently sanctioned by UCU.

All forms of ASOS (with the exception of engagement in a marking and assessment boycott), , must be recorded by the staff member taking such action via Core Systems. Further details on how to do this can be found below.

For most staff undertaking marking and assessment duties, the boycott, and therefore the withholding of 50% pay, will begin on 9 May 2023. However, where a member of staff’s marking and assessment duties very explicitly commence later than 9May 2023, the period for which pay will be withheld will begin on the date that these duties would be expected to begin.

For most staff undertaking marking and assessment duties, the boycott, and therefore the withholding of 50% pay, will end on 23 June 2023. However, where a member of staff’s marking and assessment duties commence after or extend beyond 23 June 2023 then the withholding of pay should continue until the member of staff could not reasonably be required to undertake these duties.

Where a member of staff’s marking and assessment duties are for a very limited period only, then the duration of the withholding of pay will be varied accordingly.

The withholding of pay will cease if the member of staff demonstrates to the Head of School’s satisfaction that they have resumed their full contractual duties, or if UCU call off the marking and assessment boycott and/or their period of industrial action.

The withholding of a day’s pay will be calculated on the basis of 50% of 1/365^th of gross basic salary. This calculation does not include the current 2% salary supplement in place until 31 July 2023 and it also does not include any salary sacrifice deductions that you may have.

General information about pensions provided by independent external experts is available and also a helpful video from the Russell Group.

UCU have decided to engage in a marking and assessment boycott and other forms of ASOS in response to a range of issues; the disputes are generic across the sector rather than specific to the University of Birmingham.

Staff based overseas who may be contemplating taking industrial action, are advised to consider the local laws and customs of the country within which they are based, some of which (for example, Dubai) ban engagement with strike action, or work stoppages of any kind.  

Staff based overseas who may be contemplating taking industrial action, are advised to consider the local laws and customs of the country within which they are based, some of which (for example, Dubai) ban engagement with strike action, or work stoppages of any kind.  

Unless you are taking industrial action in the form of a marking and assessment boycott or other forms of ASOS, you should be unaffected by the action. If you are concerned about the potential impact on your role you should speak with your line manager.

Heads of School/Professional Services areas will be emailing their staff to ascertain whether staff who would ordinarily be engaged in marking and assessment duties are actively carrying them out or are choosing to engage in a marking and assessment boycott. To ensure that we can mitigate the impact of any such action on our students’ education as far as possible, a definitive response is required from all staff who receive an email of this kind from their Head of School/Professional Service area.

Failure to respond to such an email, without good reason, will result in an assumption that the member of staff is engaging in the marking and assessment boycott and therefore their pay will be withheld in accordance with the provisions detailed above.

Any staff engaging in other forms of ASOS are required to record their action directly via Core Systems (accessible via Core Systems) following the steps outlined below:

1. Log into Core Systems
2. Under ‘Me’ select ‘add absence’
3. Click on ‘type’ and a list of absences appear, select absence type ‘action short of a strike’
4. Enter dates of absence and click ‘submit’