For Staff

Questions and answers

Industrial action questions and answers

We recognise that our staff want to protect the interests of students and minimise disruption to their learning during any period of industrial action.

These questions and answers have been developed for all colleagues to help address this and we’ll be regularly updating this page throughout the industrial action. If you have a question that is specific to your personal situation please speak to your manager, who will consult with HR if necessary.

Page last updated: 6 March 2020

  1. Will there be picket lines and what should I expect?
  2. What will happen if I choose not to cross a picket line?
  3. If I do not participate in industrial action, but would like to work from home or take annual leave on a strike day, is this allowed?
  4. What can be communicated to students who are affected on the day of action?
  5. Will Bright Beginnings, the onsite childcare centre, be affected by industrial action?
  6. As a manager what should I do if a member of my team is on strike?
  7. What forms do I need to fill in if I take part in action short of strike (ASOS)?
  8. What should I do if I would like to stop participating in action short of strike (ASOS)/partial performance and return to normal working?
  9. What forms do I need to fill out if I go on strike/ How do I report to HR that I was on strike?
  10. Are colleagues who participate in industrial action (in whatever form) required to recover missed learning opportunities for students?
  11. Can missed learning opportunities or activities be rescheduled for a time that I would not ordinarily teach or during what has previously been research time?
  12. What will be the impact on my pay, if I take part in strike action?
  13. How is pay deduction calculated if I take part in strike action?
  14. Will deducted pay be repaid once the work is completed; once action short of strikes (ASOS) ends or when normal working is resumed?
  15. I’m having problems with Employee Self Service (ESS) what should I do? *New


1. Will there be picket lines and what should I expect?

On a strike day it is possible that there may be picket lines.

Picketing must be conducted peacefully and respectfully and must not prevent people from attending work.

The University’s Code of Conduct on Professional Behaviours continues to apply to all colleagues during the period of industrial action.

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2. What will happen if I choose not to cross a picket line?

Please be aware that choosing not to cross a picket line is not a legitimate reason for absence from work and will be treated as strike action. As such, your absence will be recorded as participation in strike action and deductions from your pay will be made. 

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3. If I do not participate in industrial action, but would like to work from home or take annual leave on a strike day, is this allowed?

Any holiday that is agreed before the action days are announced should not be affected. If you have other agreed prior arrangements in place, such as working from home, attendance at a conference or training, this will need to be reviewed with your manager to confirm whether it is still appropriate or not.

Any new requests for holiday or to work away from the campus on days of strike action will need to be considered carefully, as it is important that any colleagues not participating in strike action are available to help manage the impact and support students. Anyone who does not attend work without a legitimate or pre-agreed reason will be considered to be on strike.

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4. What can be communicated to students who are affected on the day of action?

Please assure students that the University is committed to minimising any impact on their education and we will be doing all we can to ensure any cancelled events are recovered. Where possible, we ask colleagues to advise students of any cancellations in advance. 

A dedicated webpage on the For Students website is also available with answers to common questions students may have, it also advises them to seek information about their individual timetable from their school. This web page will be regularly updated with new questions throughout the period.

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5. Will Bright Beginnings, the onsite childcare centre, be affected by industrial action?

No. The onsite childcare provision will not be affected.

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6. As a manager what should I do if a member of my team is on strike?

In the first instance please contact your head of school or service who will guide you on the steps to take. If they are unavailable please contact your school dean, director of service or the appropriate member of the University Executive Group.

Local management are required to record participation in the strikes and ASOS i.e.:

  • Working to contract
  • Not undertaking voluntary duties
  • Not covering for absent colleagues
  • Not rescheduling lectures or classes cancelled as a result of strike action
  • Not sharing materials relating to lectures or classes cancelled as a result of strike action

Please share your records capturing any staff participating in the strikes and/or ASOS with your HR manager.

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7. What forms do I need to fill in if I take part in action short of strike (ASOS)?

You are required to confirm if you will be participating in ASOS by completing the online form in Employee Self Service (ESS).

As ASOS is continuous you are only required to indicate the date that you begin action.

Further guidance on how to record industrial action dates through ESS is available on the HR website.

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8. What should I do if I would like to stop participating in action short of strike (ASOS)/partial performance and return to normal working?

You should confirm this in writing to your head of school or service. Once they are confident that you have returned to full contractual responsibilities, full pay will be reinstated.

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9. What forms do I need to fill out if I go on strike/ How do I report to HR that I was on strike?

We respect your right to take part in the strike action, but we need to make every attempt during this period to keep our students and colleagues informed. Therefore we ask you to advise us in advance if you intend to participate in any of the strike dates by completing the online form in Employee Self Service (ESS). Part time staff will be asked to confirm the number of hours scheduled to work on the strike participation day(s).

If you are unable to notify us in advance, the online form in ESS must be completed no later than 2pm on your first working day following your participation in strike action.

Further guidance on how to record industrial action dates through ESS is available on the HR website.

If you experience difficulty accessing the link or completing the online form, please email industrialaction@leeds.ac.uk before 2pm on your first working day.

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10. Are colleagues who participate in industrial action (in whatever form) required to recover missed learning opportunities for students? 

Yes. Colleagues who take strike action are required to recover any learning opportunities missed as a result of doing so, on days when they are not on strike.

Some staff may be asked to prioritise specific duties upon return to normal working in order to protect students' educational experience, instead of undertaking research or other work activity.

Where applicable, colleagues may also be encouraged to update their material on Minerva and/or make it available to students. It is, however, always the staff member’s decision whether to make their material available.

If asked to ensure the recovery of missed learning (which is a “reasonable management request”), a refusal to do so under ASOS would amount to partial performance.

The University does not accept partial performance, and pay will be deducted in such circumstances.

For the avoidance of doubt, note that some action can be both legitimate industrial action and partial performance.

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11. Can missed learning opportunities or activities be rescheduled for a time that I would not ordinarily teach or during what has previously been research time?

Yes. Recovering any impact on students takes priority, and colleagues are expected to rearrange their existing activity to progress prioritised work, which may include having to teach outside their normal teaching times. Staff would not automatically be expected to teach outside the standard teaching hours for the University, which are Monday to Friday 9am to 6pm, or be expected to do so during hours that they do not normally work. What is reasonable will depend on custom and practice and should be discussed with your manager and local HR manager, if appropriate.

Consideration should also be given to the potential impact on students, for example if they are being asked to attend teaching events or activities outside normal teaching hours and how the cumulative effect of such plans across their programme might affect them.

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12. What will be the impact on my pay, if I take part in strike action?

One day’s pay will be deducted for each day you participate in strike action. Deductions for all the February and March strike days are expected to be processed in the March payroll run. 

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13. How is pay deduction calculated if I take part in strike action?

The same calculation will be used for full-time and part-time staff i.e. 1/365th of your salary per day of strike action. For part-time colleagues the actual hours due to be worked on a strike day is used to ensure that the lower full- time equivalent (FTE) is reflected in the deduction calculations.

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14.  Will deducted pay be repaid once the work is completed; once action short of strikes (ASOS) ends or when normal working is resumed? 

No. Any pay that has been deducted due to industrial action will not be repaid once normal working resumes. 

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 15. I’m having problems with Employee Self Service (ESS) what should I do?

Further to last week's email and the notifications via For Staff, IT service status page@ITServicesUoL advising of the issue with the ESS system, which was affecting the access to record individual industrial action dates, we are pleased to confirm that IT has identified and corrected the root cause of the problem. Therefore ESS is now working again and all functionality is available.

If you have participated in the recent period of industrial action, you will be able to record your strike dates in the ESS system as required. Please be aware that as a result of the outage, this may mean logging your dates relating to last weeks’ activity as well as those for this week, as any notifications made to the Industrial Action email address when the system was unavailable have not been recorded in the system.

Any further updates relating to the IT systems are available on the IT service status page and @ITServicesUoL

We apologise for any inconvenience that the unfortunate system outage may have caused and thank you for your cooperation now that the ESS system is available again.

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See also

Industrial action In depth homepage