Staff at this University have agreed to industrial action on Thursday 31 October in protest against their proposed increase in pay. Below is a statement from the University outlining the effects on your student experience.
Dear students
You may have read in the press or on social media that a number of unions who represent members in the higher education sector have recently balloted members on industrial action. We have now been informed by the Unions that these ballots have a majority of those voting, in favour of industrial action. This means at Staffordshire University some of our members of staff, who are members of these unions, may take part in industrial action on Thursday 31st October. In practice, what this may mean is that some staff are on strike for the day and therefore will not be performing their normal duties.
The unions that have called this industrial action, represent both teaching staff and our professional support staff that work in many of our services. We do not know how many of our members of staff will ultimately take part in the strike on Thursday 31st October, but the University is committed to being open and operating as many of our services and activities as possible.
It is unfortunate that this national ballot, about a nationally negotiated cost of living pay award will impact upon us here at Staffordshire University and every other university. However, at Staffordshire we remain committed to ensuring that students are inconvenienced as little as possible from this potential disruption. We are therefore undertaking a great deal of planning leading up to this day.
Clearly, you will want to understand, in advance, what the impact will be on your studies. Therefore I would strongly urge you to discuss with your members of academic staff whether their sessions will be running as normal on this day.
In addition, we have the following contact points for each of your Faculties who may be contacted in the lead up to Thursday 31st October, who will provide you with any information we are aware of regarding disruption. These contact points are as follows:
|
|
STOKE
|
STAFFORD
|
|
Faculty of Business, Education and Law
|
01782 294060 (Business/Education)
01782 294550 (Law)
|
-
|
|
Faculty of Health Sciences
|
01782 294720
|
01785 353766
|
|
Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Technology
|
01782 294026 (Engineering & Computing)
01782 294573 (Sciences)
|
01785 353294 (Computing)
|
|
Faculty of Arts and Creative Technologies
|
01782 294415
|
01785 353403
|
I would like to reassure you that we are doing all we can to manage this situation. We hope that there will be minimal impact and disruption to you on the day.
Noel Morrison
Academic Registrar and Director of Student Experience
Responding to this announcement, Students' Union President Rochelle Owusu-Antwi said: "Whilst the Union supports the principle of fairly paid and motivated HE staff, we can't support action that disrupts students' experience.
"We hope that academics will let students know if they are planning to take strike action so that students don't have wasted journeys to University and that they will be ensuring students learning isn't affected by any cancelled lectures, seminars or labs."