Local Hardship Fund
For full details of how to claim strike pay:
Donations to the Local Branch Hardship Fund can be made by following the instructions at:
https://www.ucubristol.org.uk/2021/11/27/bristol-ucu-hardship-fund/
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Notification of Taking Strike Action
You are under no obligation to inform University of Bristol management in advance as to whether you will be taking part in strike action or action short of a strike.
Once you are back to work following the strike action, you should respond truthfully to any query from your employer as to whether you have taken or are taking industrial action. You should not, however, respond to any such query while you are on strike.
Bristol UCU branch considers the notification to the Industrial Action Response Mailbox (industrial-action-response@bristol.ac.uk) to be ample and sufficient as regards a truthful response to the employer whether an individual staff member has taken strike action.
Bristol UCU recommends to all members that in response to a ‘self-mitigation query’, such as how their teaching or assessment should be altered because of strike action, they should simply reply to the effect that they have notified the Industrial Action Response Mailbox that they took industrial action.
Any direct request for staff members to undertake extra activities should be met with the reply what should staff cease to do or de-prioritise to carry out this extra work, observing our Action Short of Strike to work to contract and not to undertake voluntary activities.
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Strike Pay Deductions
For further information:
https://uob.sharepoint.com/sites/staff-info-hr/SitePages/report-your-strike-action.aspx
You do not have to notify industrial-action-response@bristol.ac.uk or any line manager of any strike action you intend to take.
In your email to industrial-action-response, only note your name, School/Division, the strike days/hours you have taken, whether you are full- or part-time, and include any confirmation that you wish to maintain full pension contributions for each day of action.
Note that members can schedule the reporting of their strike action, and their strike pay deductions, across the 3 reporting deadlines, across March, April and May paydays.
Deductions should be made at total salary x 1/365.
Part-time, fractional staff will have to make sure they specify exactly how many hours they have taken as strike action, as well as specifying their total hours to ensure they are only deducted for the hours struck.
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Action Short of a Strike: Rescheduling Teaching, Use of Lecture/Teaching Recordings and Uploading Online Teaching Materials
Please note that members who teach are under no obligation to and should not reschedule lectures or classes cancelled due to strike action. As per a long-standing agreement with the University, this will not be deemed a breach of contract.
This applies, too, to providing replacement materials or lecture recordings for teaching cancelled due to industrial action. You should not and do not have to do so. As Bristol UCU understands it, not providing materials due to be presented in teaching cancelled due to strike action will not be considered partial performance. This would amount to replacing and rescheduling lectures or teaching cancelled due to strike action.
The removal, though, of existing online material – taking down materials from Blackboard, for example, that would have been put up in advance of teaching, regardless of strike action, or removing lectures that students already have had access to – is very likely to be considered partial performance by University of Bristol management, with a threat of 25% pay deduction.
UCU is not currently undertaking a marking and assessment boycott. Student assessment can be rescheduled, and members risk the threat of breach of contract if they do not.
The requirement to put materials up on Blackboard 48 hours before a lecture is a DDA requirement, so only applies if you have students with disability adjustments in the class. We believe that you can meet that requirement by emailing those specific students the materials in advance.
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UCU Strike FAQs
Question about maternity pay? Can I strike if not a union member? Can I strike applying for ILTR? Click on the link below:
https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/12469/FAQs#Taking_strike_action
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USS Pension Contributions
When you notify that you have taken strike action, you should include any confirmation that you want to maintain full USS contributions for each day of action. The University will regard this as permission to continue to pay your full USS employee contributions for each day of strike action.
To pause your pension contributions, you can include confirmation that you do not want to maintain your pension contributions during your strike action.
This information is available on the University’s SharePoint site:
https://uob.sharepoint.com/sites/staff-info-hr/SitePages/strike-pay-pension-leave.aspx
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What to tell students?
This action is supported by our Student Union and our National Union of Students:
https://www.bristolsu.org.uk/ucu-strikes
Also: a Bristol UCU template email for PGRs can be found here:
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Out-of-Office Message Template:
Click on the link below:
bristolucu 