The Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) says more than 100 staff at Queen Mary are panicking about how they will pay their rent and bills this month after the university deducted full pay for 21 days from their July pay checks because they refused to note students work in june. The union says many employees opened pay stubs with nothing in them, although they were still performing the “vast majority” of their duties, including teaching and research. The university is threatening 100% part-time bookings again in August. Following national walkouts earlier in the year, 19 universities were hit by a major boycott at the end of May. Many of these, including Sheffield, Leeds, Nottingham, Brighton, Dundee and Westminster, joined Queen Mary in threatening to accept full pay for partial performance. But UCU says no other university has ever followed through on these threats. Jo Grady, UCU general secretary, said Queen Mary’s senior management had “launched a vindictive attack” on its members, “punishing them for taking part in legitimate industrial action” and “cementing its reputation as the worst university employer in the UK Kingdom”. He said: “It is wrong to do this at any time and even sadder as staff struggle to make ends meet in a cost of living crisis.” The move caused panic among academics at other universities. With Liz Truss and fellow Tory leadership candidate Rishi Sunak both vowing to crack down on unions, there are fears this could set a dangerous precedent for crushing industrial action in higher education. A GoFundMe page to support strikers who lost their pay has raised almost £60,000 in donations. A junior researcher at Queen Mary’s film department, who asked not to be named in case there were any fallout from management, said: “When people started taking these pay cuts they were freaking out. There was a lot of anger and confusion. We love our jobs but this is bullying. It’s really painful because you’ve worked really hard even without marking and you find out when you open your pay slip that you’ve accidentally worked for free.” Dr Kate Hall, a lecturer in politics and international relations at Queen Mary, who had her salary frozen, said “dealing without 21 days’ pay is extremely difficult”. He said the prospect of losing 42 days’ pay for the whole summer was “so terrifying”, but insisted academics would not back down. “This has strengthened our resolve as it is such an extreme response to staff asking for a more sustainable environment in which to work.” Miri Rubin, professor of history at Queen Mary, tweeted: “It’s like being slapped in the face: in the three – now unpaid – weeks, I directed research, supervised PhDs, advised undergraduates, sat on 2 appointment panels, chaired a viva school, conducted assessments and scored all the scenarios required for our finalists to graduate.” Laura Gray Blair is studying for a PhD and teaching at Queen Mary. Photo: Sophia Evans/The Observer Laura Gray Blair, a doctoral student who also teaches at the college, said she understood the stress the boycott had caused undergraduates in her department. “I tried to be clear with them that the situation the staff are in is not sustainable. They are mostly taught by people on temporary contracts who don’t know if they will have a job next year.” Blair said staff involved in the boycott continued to teach and support students in June despite the university’s warning that they would not be paid. “We did it because we care about our students and many of us couldn’t believe that senior management would take such a damaging action,” he added. A senior film major, who asked not to be named, said students don’t trust feedback from anonymous surrogates. “The quality of some of the comments was appalling. Sometimes students only have one word,” she said. Students who knew staff had their pay at the port were “shocked”, he said. “It seems so cruel. How will teachers who can’t afford food or rent provide us with a world-class education?’ A Queen Mary spokesman said the impact of the action was “limited”. “The vast majority of our 32,000 students remain unaffected. Out of a workforce of around 5,400 only 108 people had their pay deducted as a result of partial performance in June.” He said: “Since the start of national industrial action, our top priority has been to protect our students’ education. Therefore, we have asked staff to prioritize training activities and prioritize other work where necessary.” The spokesman added that the university continued negotiations but that UCU members had “yet to accept a reasonable deal”. Goldsmiths, University of London on Friday became one of the latest institutions to sign an agreement ending the marked boycott. However, a spokesman said the university was “deeply sorry that 119 students did not receive their grades in time for our summer graduation ceremonies”. He said all affected students would now receive their grades, with seniors and international students being given priority, and the university would organize subsequent ceremonies as well as welfare support. Nearly 4,000 international academics have signed a petition calling for the reinstatement of Professor Des Freedman and Dr Gholam Khiabany, head and deputy head of Goldsmiths’ prestigious Media, Communications and Cultural Studies department, who were suspended after emailing students explaining they would not be able to graduate. The university declined to comment on this.
