The University of Sheffield has been accused of bullying after telling staff they will face further pay deductions for not rescheduling teaching missed during industrial action.
University and College Union (UCU) members at Sheffield say they are facing “double deductions” after holding 16 days of strike action across November and December over plans announced by the university to make staff savings of £23 million, which the union has argued would equate to about 400 job losses.
As part of the action, members also committed to not rescheduling lectures or classes cancelled because of the disruption.
The university has now written to staff to tell them that any academic who has not rescheduled the lost teaching will be docked the entirety of their pay for three weeks, starting on 19 January, on top of the wages already docked for the strike days.
It means that any staff member who participated in the full strike action and has not rescheduled teaching will lose a total of 31 days of pay.
In an email seen by Times Higher Education, Sheffield told staff that if they are “not ready and willing to fulfil the full requirements of your job role and replace missed teaching as expected…you will therefore be in breach of your contract”.
“In line with the university’s position on partial performance, 100 per cent of your pay will be withheld for the entirety of this period.”
Any work that staff choose to do during the three-week period will be considered “voluntary”, it adds.
David Hayes, chair of Sheffield’s UCU branch, described the announcement as “disproportionate and punitive”, and said it is “very frustrating that this is the route that they’re going to go down”.
“It is extremely unclear to me why this is allowed to happen. They’ve already deprived us of the money that we would have got for teaching this material anyway during the strike action,” he said.
“It’s just bullying tactics from a university that doesn’t have a better answer to the dispute that we’re in,” Hayes added.
A spokesperson for Sheffield said it respected the “right of staff members to strike and understand this decision is not taken lightly”.
“However, staff who take strike action are not fulfilling their contractual duties and, because of this, will not be paid for the days they do not work. This is standard practice in any sector.”
They said that staff choosing not to replace teaching that was disrupted were “not fulfilling their contractual duties and so pay will be withheld in line with our long-established policy”.
“Our approach follows Office for Students expectations for institutions during industrial action that we are expected to adhere to and is focused on ensuring students receive the education they are entitled to with minimal disruption,” the spokesperson added.
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