A message to staff regarding upcoming industrial action, 25 November – 4 December

The industrial action is being carried out in support of a dispute about pay and no detriment under proposed changes to the USS Pension Scheme.

We are doing all we can to inform and support our students. You can find out what students are being told by reading the student news item about the action and the FAQs on the UCL Students website.

But it is not only students who are affected by the action. Every member of staff will be touched by it. The decision to take industrial action is never one that is taken lightly. The decision not to take action and to cross a picket line staffed by colleagues is equally difficult. We must respect both, and acknowledge and try to understand the personal and professional conflicts that many of us will experience. 

We have put together FAQs for staff, to support not only colleagues taking industrial action, but also for those who will be working through it. We have also provided guidance about what to say to students who are anxious about lost teaching or asking for compensation.

Pay and conditions and USS pension arrangements are not negotiated locally but instead are negotiated nationally by two representative bodies for the majority of universities (UUK (pensions) and UCEA (pay and conditions)). As the Provost wrote last week, we continue to press for further negotiations to resolve the disputes and we will continue to represent your concerns at a national level.

Thank you.

Ms Fiona Ryland – Chief Operating Officer
Professor Anthony Smith – Vice Provost (Education and Student Affairs)