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Key points
- Make sure that you complete the form to the best of your ability. Although figures will necessarily be an estimate, you should be honest.
- Check that you have not put the same activity down under two question headings, otherwise you are liable to be deducted twice.
- If work was not explicitly allocated to you due to the MAB, then you did not boycott it, so you should not include it. You can’t boycott something you weren’t explicitly asked to do.
- If you turned down voluntary work due to the MAB, such as additional marking, you do not have to document this as it was voluntary.
- If you took leave within the period 24 April to 6 July, it is wise to highlight this in the final question.
- Despite a reference to not being deducted more than 100% of pay in the forms sent to members, UCL has confirmed that PGTAs will still be paid the London Living Wage (£11.95 an hour) if they boycotted marking.
Note that answer fields have quite low character limits so you may need to be concise!
Q1. Should I complete the form?
Our recommendation is Yes. Most members would be better off completing the form.
You may not need to complete it if
- your total number of hours of marking estimate is greater than 204, or
- your contract of employment was solely for marking during the period.
But there is no disadvantage in completing the form in either case.
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Q2. How can I estimate hours of work for a task I did not do?
All of the figures that you have been asked to provide are necessarily estimates.
- If your programme has a Workload Model with estimates in terms of minutes per script, you should use that.
- Where there is no Workload Model, you may wish to:
- Liaise with your programme leader or other colleagues to ask for their estimates.
- Or if you have done the task before you could use that as the basis for your estimate.
- Otherwise you should try to give a realistic answer of what you think is correct.
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Q3. What happens if I put down a different estimate of marks per hour than my colleagues?
UCL will treat every submission independently. However, you should be able to stand by your estimate, therefore it may be helpful to liaise with your module or programme leader about estimates.
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Q4. Can I discuss my submission with my colleagues?
Yes you can. The data is yours to share in confidence. For example, you can ask colleagues how long they think a duty will take. You don’t have to agree to their estimate but you can still ask for their opinion.
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Q5. Should I include work that I was not asked to do because of the boycott?
No. If you were not assigned a duty you did not boycott it.
Example: if you would normally take part in a parity marking event for all markers on a module, and none was organised due to the MAB, then you did not boycott it.
Example: if you would normally expect to second mark or moderate 5 scripts, but second marking was not allocated due to the MAB, then you did not boycott second marking or moderation because you were not asked to do it.
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Q6. Should I include work that was boycotted after 6 July?
No, because it falls outside UCL’s warning period.
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Q7. Some duties don’t easily fit under one heading. What should I do?
There are two options.
- You can subdivide duties by time under two headings, e.g. 5 hours becomes 3+2 under different headings.. Make sure you do not put the same activity down twice, as you will be deducted twice!
- If the activity does not appear to fit under any of the question headings, you can document it under the final question.
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Q8. Why am I being asked to answer “Part a” of the questions?
The aim is to provide sufficient information to identify the precise duties that are being referred to. The start and end date does not form part of the calculation.
This information may be used for responding to student complaints. UCL says “It is important that we continue to ask for dates and the details and the reason for this is that we could face litigation from students at a later date and we would need this information to help us to defend any legal claims against UCL.”
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Q9. Where will the information be kept and for how long?
UCL has said that data will be stored within the HR Central services team. They say “this data will be utilised by a group of managers who will be reviewing the overall data submitted.”
UCU has pointed out that this data is legally protected, and must be stored securely and not shared with departments. The maximum period of time required for this type of data is 6 years. Its lawful purpose is limited to calculating pay deductions and responding to student complaints.
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Q10. My post is funded by a research grant. Should I complete the form?
Research funded staff often have limits on how much work can be performed for the university outside of the project. For UKRI funded staff this is an average of 6 hours per week, for Cancer Research it is 20% (7.3 hours), and so on. Part-funded staff should apply this principle pro-rata to the grant.
You should complete the form in the usual way, but be aware of these limits. HR says “a process is being considered in relation to this.” Any pay deductions should be retained in the grant. You can ask your PI about applying to the funding body for a ‘no-cost extension’ so that unspent salary can be used extending your project.
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Q11. In the past when I marked work, it was purely voluntary. Should I complete the form?
If marking is not part of your job description, and your manager accepted that your decision to turn down work due to the MAB was voluntary, then it is likely to be viewed as ‘declining voluntary work’ rather than boycotting.
UCL has agreed that it will not deduct for turning down voluntary work.
If taking this factor into account brings your participation to zero you should contact HR and ucu@ucl.ac.uk because failing to return this form could lead to the equivalent of a 35-day pay deduction!
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Q12. I turned down extra marking during the MAB that was not originally allocated to me. Should I put this down?
No. This is ‘declining voluntary work’ rather than boycotting, and attracts no deductions.
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Q13. I chaired an Exam Board, but the way I performed this task was affected by the MAB. Should I include this?
No. If you performed the duty you did not boycott it, so no deductions apply.
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Q14. I took annual leave or other forms of leave (sickness, maternity, etc.) within the period. Does this affect the calculation?
Yes. Employers cannot make pay deductions for industrial action when staff are on leave! The general principle is that if you were absent from work for an agreed leave reason you were not taking industrial action.
UCL is obliged to abide by its 50% rate, so it can only deduct up to a maximum of 50% of the remaining days in their warned ‘central marking period’, once leave days have been subtracted.
How should you account for this in the questionnaire?
- Although there is no specific place to record your leave, our advice is that you document all periods of leave in the ‘central marking period’ (between 24 April and 6 July inclusive) in the final question and also ensure your leave record is up-to-date on MyHR. If you have any concerns, contact HR and ucu@ucl.ac.uk.
- If you were unable to complete MAB duties due to leave, then you should take account of this in your assessment of hours boycotted.
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Q15. Should I answer Question 20 (“Providing informal guidance or feedback to students concerning their likely mark, grade or assessed progress of summative assessments, whether they may pass/fail”)?
This is an odd question, which UCU has objected to for two reasons.
- No staff member should be telling students their opinion on possible marks for good academic reasons, including the risk of student complacency or panic, or ultimate complaint. Estimated marks are confidential, and only confirmed following Exam Boards.
- Even if it were permissible to say to a student ‘I think your projected mark is X’ (which it is not), it is not an activity that requires a significant time, so it is not realistic to estimate total hours spent on it!
Our advice is to simply reply No.
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Q.16 I’ve not received an email about the review - what should I do?
Wait. UCL has records of some 160 staff who participated in the MAB, and are writing to them. This is their process. The responsibility for contacting staff falls on UCL.
Where staff have left UCL, it may take some time for UCL to contact staff. It is also possible that due to an administrative error, some staff have been initially overlooked. Everyone asked to complete the questionnaire will be given a two week period to respond, starting from when it is sent out to you.
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Q.17 My contract or hours have changed since the MAB period, should I still respond with the work that were boycotted due to the MAB?
Yes, because the hours of work are subject to pay deductions, and everyone is asked to respond honestly to this question.
Where staff are issued a new contract or set a small FTE from September which does not allow for the time spent marking previously boycotted work, you should raise this with your line manager in the first instance. UCL can ask you to mark work missed due to the boycott but they cannot expect you to work beyond the hours of your current contract to do so. Contact ucu@ucl.ac.uk for assistance.
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Q18. I started out MABing certain duties but later came off MAB; they were completed, not within the original timeframe (the exam board took place without the marks) but in time for UCL’s ‘additional results day’. Should I include these duties, and if so, how?
UCL set a number of local and institutional deadlines for the return of marks. The first institutional deadline was 9 June. If you came off the MAB and submitted marks by that date, then you do not need to document your participation.
After the 9 June, however, you should declare your participation in this form, even if you later chose to return marks and come off the MAB. But you should mention in your reply if in so doing you met later deadlines.
Q19. I am concerned about the “Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure” on the DocuSign link. Should I be? Is it acceptable for UCL to collect sensitive information through a third party like this?
UCL is legally responsible for the data collection exercise from beginning to end, and for the security of data collected. This process uses an outsourced provider, ‘the Professional Services Hub’. UCU is generally concerned about GDPR, and the risk that this data is inappropriately used.
If you have any concerns about this method, our advice would be to contact HR (cc ucu@ucl.ac.uk) and ask them if they would accept a completed PDF to be emailed to them as an alternative.
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Q20. In the form, UCL said that it will not deduct PGTAs more than they are paid. But UCU has previously said UCL had agreed to pay PGTAs at the national minimum wage (£11.95 an hour). Which is correct?
Following a challenge from UCL UCU, UCL has confirmed that PGTAs contracted for marking and subject to pay deductions will not be deducted more than 50%, and will be paid a minimum of the London Living Wage (£11.95 an hour). See also Appendix 1 in our MAB FAQs.
