A recent update to the situation is that 84% of UCU members vote to call off marking boycott.
I am pleased to inform you that after UCU allowed its members of the University and College Union to vote on the proposed pay changes, there has been an overwhelmingly vote to call off a marking boycott and accept a new pay deal from employers.
This vote was called after the UCU postponed the original start date of the boycott – 28 April – to 6 May to allow for members to consider the pay offer.
Almost 84 per cent of members taking part in a ballot voted to back a 2 per cent pay offer for next year and stop the boycott, which was due to start next week. Just 16 per cent rejected the offer.
A total of 30,141 votes were counted in the ballot, a turnout of 52.6 per cent. Out of the eligible votes cast, 25,239 voted to accept the offer and call off the marking boycott (83.7 per cent) and 4,902 voted to reject it (16.3 per cent).
The planned boycott – and a series of strikes held since October – were part of an ongoing dispute over a pay offer of 1 per cent for the current academic year.
However, the 2 per cent offer for the 2014-15 academic year now appears to have been accepted by UCU members as a way to resolve the dispute.
The UCU’s higher education committee is due to meet on the 1st of May to discuss the results of the ballot, but the huge majority in favor of accepting the offer makes it inevitable the union will officially call off the action.
Once I know the outcome of the committee’s decision, I will follow this news article up with further information.