Action Short of Strike and Marking and Assessment Boycott

ASOS is when employees withdraw from some of their duties. Where these duties are of a contractual nature (expressed terms, implied terms and custom and practice), this will amount to partial performance and the university reserves the right to deduct up to a 100% of pay as it does not accept partial performance.

Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) have notified that the university that action short of a strike will consist of:  

• A marking and assessment boycott.
• Working to contractual duties and not undertaking any voluntary activities.
• Not covering for absent colleagues.
• Not rescheduling classes and lectures cancelled due to strike action.
• Removing uploaded materials related to, and/or not sharing materials related to, lectures or classes that will be or have been cancelled as a result of strike action.

UCU have called on their members to participate in ASOS as part of their on-going industrial action. Therefore, only UCU members can participate in action short of a strike (ASOS) including a marking and assessment boycott (MAB)

All activities that form part of your normal day to day and contractual obligations. These include express, implied, and custom and practice activities which can include but are not limited to:

• Teaching including seminars and tutorials
• Tutorial guidance including pastoral care
• Preparation
• Research and other forms of scholarly activity
• Examining
• Research student supervision
• Student placement activity
• Covering for absent colleagues
• Rescheduling lectures or classes that have been cancelled
• Marking and assessment
• Programme and module leadership
• Line management responsibilities
• Curriculum development
• Income generating activities
• Administration and related activities
• Attendance at meetings that form part of your regular activity

If this is activity you would normally be expected to undertake, this is not an additional/ voluntary duty. 

A marking and assessment boycott covers all marking and assessment processes that contribute to summative assessment decisions for students/learners, whether final (for example graduation or completion) or interim (for example progression decisions).

UCU have advised that the MAB covers all coursework and examination marking, assessment of fieldwork, exhibits, practical work, scientific experiments, presentations, posters etc. The MAB also covers assessment-related work for example exam invigilation; processing of marks; submission of completed marking through any university administrative procedure; assessment-related administration such as distribution of scripts or papers to be marked, organisation of and preparation for exam or assessment boards or meetings; attendance at exam boards and meetings.

The university refuses to accept partial performance of the employment contract and participation in a marking and assessment boycott is a clear example of this. Anyone participating in the MAB will be in breach of their contract. Therefore, if you refuse to undertake marking and assessment activities, the pay you receive will be reduced until such time as you cease participation in the MAB and/or there is no longer a requirement for you to perform any marking and assessment work. 

Staff members who elect to participate in the MAB will lose a day’s pay for each calendar day that they participate in the MAB. Salary deductions will be 100% of salary based on a 1/365^th. In legal terms, individuals who undertake other work in such circumstances can be considered to be doing so voluntarily. Where staff members are still performing some of their contractual duties on this basis, the university will make an ex gratia payment equivalent to 50% of their salary for the period of time in which they participate in the boycott. This payment will be pensionable. 

This form of partial performance is deemed to be continuous even if there are days in the period of your participation on the MAB when you may not normally be marking or completing assessment activity.

The ex-gratia payment will be kept under review and could be withdrawn or reduced at any point.

The university rejects partial performance and therefore has the right to withhold up to 100% of your pay whilst you engage in this activity. However, at this point the university has determined that it will only deduct pay if an individual is participating in the MAB due to the impact that this has on our students.

Any future decisions to withhold pay for ASOS excluding marking and assessment boycott will be informed by the impact ASOS has on our students and the level of disruption to their education and staff will be written to in advance with the detail.

UCU have confirmed this will commence on 20^th April 23 and will be continuous until the industrial action is resolved. 

All academic staff will receive an e-mail requesting them to declare if they are taking part in the MAB. Staff members who are not participating in the MAB will be expected to carry out their marking and assessment duties as normal.

If you do not advise us that you are intending to engage in the boycott and then do so then the pay deduction will apply from the start of the action as appropriate. 

Yes. Once the boycott has started colleagues are obliged to answer truthfully if they are asked if they are participating. 

Yes. The University reserves the right to determine those tasks to be prioritised including rescheduling work as appropriate to minimise disruption to our student community. Due consideration should be given to workload distribution with a view to minimising any excessive demands on colleagues. 

Deductions will be made as soon as is reasonably possible. Deduction for days of action taken in April will be made in May’s salary and deduction for days in May will be made in June’s salary. Deductions will continue until the action ends or staff resume their full duties.

There will be no reimbursement of withheld pay to a colleague after they cease participating in industrial action, including where duties not carried out during MAB are completed after returning to normal working. 

As 100% of pay will be deducted, then days participated in MAB will not count as pensionable service. However, there will be an ex-gratia payment equivalent to 50% of their salary which will be pensionable.  For some schemes, it is possible for employees to maintain service contributions by making contributions.

The overall implications of the loss of service would have to be calculated on an individual basis and would have varying degrees of impact based on an individual’s age and length of service. 

There is no provision in the Teachers’ Pension Scheme regulations for members to ‘buy back’ strike days.  Local Government Pension Scheme members may elect to pay additional contributions in order to avoid a loss of service. The cost of purchasing the ‘lost’ pension would be met fully by you and the member must apply within 30 days of returning to work after a period of strike action.

Please notify the university’s Pensions and Payroll Team through the Finance Helpdesk at https://helpme.ljmu.ac.uk if you wish to buy back a period of strike action.

Further Information regarding pension implications can be found at:

TPS: Industrial Action | Work events | Working Life | Teachers' Pensions (teacherspensions.co.uk)

LGPS: If you are away from work :: LGPS (lgpsmember.org)

USS: https://www.uss.co.uk/for-members/life-events/absence-from-work

The names of individuals who are taking part in the ASOS comprising of MAB, will be shared with Directors of School and the relevant ELT to help them assess the impact of the industrial action on students’ learning. This information will help them determine what action is necessary to minimise the impact on students to protect their student experience and progress whilst the action is ongoing.

The information will be retained by Directors of School no longer than necessary to ensure that the impact has been assessed, appropriate mitigation measures are put in place and the associated academic assessment processes completed.

The information will also be processed and retained by the HR and Payroll department so that the adjustments to colleagues’ pay, and the reasons for them, are properly recorded.

The University has accordingly considered the use of this information and is satisfied that this is compliant with data protection legislation. Colleagues receiving information about individuals who have taken part in MAB action are aware of their data protection responsibilities and duty to uphold confidentiality.

Find more information on how the University processes your data.