Photo: Flickr / Nick Efford

Marking boycott starts on November

Staff members across 69 UK universities, including Warwick University, will begin a marking boycott next Friday 6 November. This will stop students from getting their work marked and being set coursework, as well as halt exams.

The decision came about because no agreement was reached over the pensions row between Universities UK (UUK) and University and College Union (UCU), during negotiations on Wednesday 22 October..

The UCU has opposed UUK’s proposed changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) as they have claimed that the changes could lead to scheme members losing thousands of pounds in retirement.

Sally Hunt, UCU general secretary stated: “the employers failed to convince us of the need for their dramatic changes”. She added that the employers’ proposals were “misleading” and “full of holes.”

“the employers failed to convince us of the need for their dramatic changes”
Sally Hunt, UCU general secretary

The Union said more detailed negotiations would be required to solve the current impasse-the boycott will continue until the dispute is resolved. The next negotiating meeting is set for Friday 7 November. However, the UCU had said it would be happy to clear its diary and meet sooner.

Ms Hunt added: “We hope the employers will come back to the table for genuine negotiations.”

Acknowledging that these changes could have a negative impact on staff pensions, Nia Oatley, a first-year English Literature student said: “teachers are perfectly within their rights to protest.”

UUK is convinced that its proposals “offer the best possible deal for employees”, and are not only about addressing the budget deficit which stands at an estimated £8 billion.

Thus UUK is “disappointed” with UCU’s decision to undertake the industrial action, which union members voted for overwhelmingly on November 20.

87 percent voted in favour of action short of a strike. Yet the Union remained hopeful that an agreement was going to be found in the talks scheduled after the ballot took place.

Students will most likely be concerned about the measures which will be put in place to limit the effects of the boycott on their work.

Kartikeya Jaiswal, a first-year Economics student said: “the changes to the USS will be “unfair” for staff. However “students shouldn’t suffer negatively because of them”, he continued.

UUK has committed itself to “take all reasonable steps to mitigate impact on students”, as the organisation takes any disruption to students’ studies by industrial action “very seriously”.

The University of Warwick will no doubt ensure that the work of students are not neglected.

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