UCU: Responding to university action to undermine ASOS

Motion

Motion text: Conference notes that:
1. The Office for Student’s Briefing (www.officeforstudents.org.uk/media/cd8d548d-92e1-4e26-b29b-522dc55239fa/industrial-action-briefing-note_november-2019.pdf), encourages providers to ‘take reasonable steps to avoid or limit disruption and do everything possible to minimise or make up for its impact’, suggesting that providers who fail to make sufficient mitigation may breach conditions of registration.
2. Some Universities have understood this as a regulatory requirement to reschedule missed teaching or require that staff take on additional work.
3. This has led to threats of deductions for partial performance, potentially to be imposed ad-infinitum, until missed work is made-up.
4. Members facing ongoing deductions for participation in ASOS may feel isolated and risk victimisation and casualised members may be threatened with work loss.
Conference resolves that:
a. such threats seek to undermine ASOS
b. members facing ongoing deductions or work loss for ASOS will be prioritised for financial support
c. UCU will respond to institutional imposition of ongoing deductions or work loss with national strike action.